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COLPO  DI SOLE








(HEATSTROKE)

A SHORT FILM BY LYDIA LUDWIKA LEIBER















PROJECT TYPE: NARRATIVE SHORT
RUNNING TIME: 20 MINUTES
GENRE: DRAMA
FORMAT: 16MM
LANGUAGE: ITALIAN | ENGLISH | FRENCH


















LOGLINE   //
A woman returns to a familiar beach in Puglia, where the meditative sights and sounds of the Mediterranean plunge her into the flow of memory.  30 years to the day, she remembers the night she last saw her best friend.





SYNOPSIS   //
Set on a sun-drenched Apulian beach during Ferragosto, Colpo di Sole follows Chiara, a woman in her early 40s as she lies on a beach and is reminded of her youth and friendship with Gaia some thirty years ago. The film opens on Ferragosto 1986, with 15-year-old Chiara and Gaia playing cards and drinking at a bonfire with Gaia’s new school friends. Gaia, the most consistent presence of her childhood from her summers in Puglia, is now pulling away and Chiara feels more and more like an outsider. She watches as Gaia and the others run toward the cliffs, stripping down, diving into the sea— free, untethered, out of reach. 

Now, decades later, Chiara lies on the same beach, people-watching. Through Chiara’s gaze, strangers on the beach transform into archetypes—embodiments of tourists, Europeans, and humanity at large. Their quirks and interactions, however trivial, evoke the bitter-sweetness of life and trigger memories of her own past. As the afternoon sun climaxes we learn of Gaia’s fatal accident jumping from a cliff on that fateful night of the bonfire in 1986. 

Just when Chiara returns to the sea for a moment of relief, her husband and small daughter approach, instantly grounding her in the present. A meditation on longing, loss, and the way places hold us, Colpo di Sole captures the weight of memory in a sensory portrait of the Mediterranean. 


TEASER   //
        
              
DIRECTOR’S    VISION   //

Heat is central -- oppressive, hypnotic, disorienting. Colpo di Sole follows a rhythm that moves with the slow pull of the Mediterranean Sea and employs the sun as a narrative device. The film begins with Chiara emerging from the water and ends with her diving back in. The ultimate goal is to capture the sensory experience of beach-going, of tension and relief –  the relentless, suffocating pressure of the sun, which inevitably draws you back into the water. For Chiara, this visceral experience becomes a way of experiencing memory, serving as both a trigger and a cathartic release that allows her to process the trauma of losing her best friend. As the heat intensifies, so does Chiara’s unraveling, her past resurfacing in glances, gestures and the indistinct hum of the beach around her. 

The visual language is tactile -- 16mm film capturing the stickiness of salt-damp skin, droplets of sweat and heat shimmering above the sand, all with a tinge of nostalgia. The camera moves instinctively, drifting between Chiara’s perspective and a more detached, observational gaze. There’s a feeling of being immersed in the present while simultaneously being pulled somewhere else entirely. Rather than heavy exposition or dramatic flair, Colpo di Sole will rely on subtlety in storytelling. Poetic cinematography will shed light on the quiet, often overlooked moments that speak to larger emotional truths related to memory, female friendship, desire and longing.

As much as Colpo di Sole is an intensely sensory experience through Chiara, it is also a broader survey of human behavior. From playful couples to quarreling families, beachgoers and the beach act as a mirror of the human experience – the perfect place for people-watching. Through Chiara’s gaze, these strangers on the beach transform into archetypes. We begin to see these characters from an almost alien perspective, where men, women, children baking in the sun suddenly appear closer to seal lions flocking on the shore. For Chiara, this dynamic environment offers a space for reflection.

The film’s non-linear editorial approach will weave together voyeuristic vignettes of strangers on the beach with fragmented memories, creating a rich mosaic of past and present, and a raw account of life on the beach. The reality is we rarely experience time linearly. We are always somewhere in-between past, present, and future.




REFERENCES   //




Scene Reference:

Oslo, August 31st // dir. Joachim Trier

This scene from Oslo, August 31st is a key reference for Colpo di Sole, particularly in how it captures the subtleties of people-watching. The protagonist drifts in and out of conversations, observing the world around him with a quiet, almost detached awareness. Through a similarly contemplative pacing and sound design, I hope to create a raw and naturalistic experience of people-watching on the beach.







MEET   OUR   TEAM   //

 Our creative team brings together an accomplished group of filmmakers with a wealth of experience in both independent and commercial production.



LYDIA LUDWIKA LEIBER
WRITER & DIRECTOR
RODRIGO MELLA
PRODUCER 
PAULINE GLOMAUD-MURMANN
PRODUCER
JACQUES BOAS
PRODUCER 
CATTIVE PRODUZIONI
CO-PRODUCTION COMPANY
SHORELIGHT PICTURES
CO-PRODUCTION COMPANY








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