BERLIN - Berlin welcomes the enigmatic charm of Salento. Marina Pierri's debut novel Gotico salentino was presented at Books at Berlinale, the Co-Production Market event dedicated to titles with a high cinematic potential. Selected as one of the ten most promising titles of 2025, the book has captured the attention of producers and industry professionals, thanks to its compelling story and evocative atmospheres. The presentation at Books at Berlinale was a moment of great satisfaction for Marina Pierri, who shared her joy at the milestone on social media. "It's an honour to see Gotico salentino among the selected titles: the dream of bringing Salento into the world of cinema could become reality", she declared.
The novel has stirred interest in producers, not only because of the compelling story, but also the book’s strong visual component. With its cinematic atmosphere, Gotico salentino seems entirely ready for a big screen transposition.
Pierri's novel, set in the solitary countryside of the Salento peninsula, transports the reader to a world on the edge of reality and folklore. Filomena Quarta returns to her native land after years spent in Milan when she inherits the Dimora Quarta, the family home, on the Ionian coast. The house, with its imposing walls and shadowed courtyards, surrounded by centuries-old olive trees, holds disturbing secrets.
The landscape is not just a backdrop, but an integral part of the narrative. The Salento of Gotico salentino is a lively and mysterious territory, where the beauty of nature mingles with a feeling of constant restlessness. The blinding midday sun alternates with nights of freezing wind, while the deserted alleys of the villages and expanses of red earth seem to preserve forgotten stories. The Ionian Sea, just steps from Dimora Quarta, is a changeable and unpredictable element: crystalline and inviting by day, dark and unfathomable at night, like the secrets that Filomena will uncover. At the heart of the mystery is the legend of the malumbra, a ghostly apparition that haunts the house, whom Filomena herself saw as a child. Its presence, whispered by the inhabitants of the village, insinuates itself into the cracks of the narrative like an echo of the past, evoking the gothic charm of traditional stories from Southern Italy.