Petra and Jure (Adalgisa Manfrida and Massimiliano Motta) are inseparable siblings who use their wits to get through a freezing Christmas as best they can in the white landscapes of the mountains of Friuli, tackling snow, ice, escalating petty crimes, and nature.
Ultimo Schiaffo, the second feature film from Gorizia-born director Matteo Oleotto (after Zoran, My Idiot Nephew) was filmed in Tarvisio (province of Udine) and other locations. As the siblings wander around, there are glimpses of the exterior of Church of Sant'Anna (the interior is the Parish of Saints Peter and Paul) where Don Attilio (Giuseppe Battiston) is busy creating a huge Christmas comet and taking care of the parishioners' minor problems, including a missing dog, Marlowe.
In the Cave del Predil district of Tarvisio, locations included the Raibl International Geomineral Park, dedicated to the memory of workers (site for the scene of illegal gambling) and the Julian Alps Military History Museum. The siblings often drive along the hairpin bends around lake Predil, which covers an ancient glacial basin just a stone's throw from the Slovenian border.
Nestled in the Julian Alps, the Saisera Valley was the location for the snow scenes.
The retirement home where the siblings’ mother lives, fictionally located next to the church, is actually the Angelo Culot municipal retirement home in Gorizia.
The epilogue with Petra and her mother has the reassuring backdrop of the Nazario Sauro seafront in Grado (province of Gorizia).
Petra and Jure (Adalgisa Manfrida and Massimiliano Motta) are inseparable siblings who use their wits to get through a freezing Christmas as best they can in the white landscapes of the mountains of Friuli, tackling snow, ice, escalating petty crimes, and nature.
Ultimo Schiaffo, the second feature film from Gorizia-born director Matteo Oleotto (after Zoran, My Idiot Nephew) was filmed in Tarvisio (province of Udine) and other locations. As the siblings wander around, there are glimpses of the exterior of Church of Sant'Anna (the interior is the Parish of Saints Peter and Paul) where Don Attilio (Giuseppe Battiston) is busy creating a huge Christmas comet and taking care of the parishioners' minor problems, including a missing dog, Marlowe.
In the Cave del Predil district of Tarvisio, locations included the Raibl International Geomineral Park, dedicated to the memory of workers (site for the scene of illegal gambling) and the Julian Alps Military History Museum. The siblings often drive along the hairpin bends around lake Predil, which covers an ancient glacial basin just a stone's throw from the Slovenian border.
Nestled in the Julian Alps, the Saisera Valley was the location for the snow scenes.
The retirement home where the siblings’ mother lives, fictionally located next to the church, is actually the Angelo Culot municipal retirement home in Gorizia.
The epilogue with Petra and her mother has the reassuring backdrop of the Nazario Sauro seafront in Grado (province of Gorizia).
Staragata I.T., Spok Films
There's the Christmas we all know, the reassuring scene, with a nativity, fairy lights, and Christmas tree, and then there's Petra and Jure's Christmas, far from any possible form of warmth (emotional, spiritual, meteorological). The two siblings live in below freezing temperatures; while they're used to it, the freezing atmosphere of the village and its few inhabitants are starting to pose a problem: is there any way for people like them to escape? What kind of a future is there for a down-and-out pair of mountain handymen? Money. They need money. The providential disappearance of the dog Marlowe, with the offer of a "generous reward", seems more promising than many of their daily expedients, the legitimate and less so...
