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“Puca” by the Apulian director Sara Scalera, shot entirely in Calabria in the spectacular scenery of the Calanchi di Palizzi and with the support of the Calabria Film Commission Foundation, will be screened as an International Preview at the 83rd edition of the Venice International Film Festival (2/12 September 2026), within the 41st International Critics’ Week (SIC), an independent and parallel section organized by the National Union of Film Critics Italians (SNCCI).
“The Calabria Film Commission Foundation accompanies Sara Scalera’s short film to one of the most prestigious stages of international cinema. With its fundamental support for the short film “Puca”, it has contributed to transforming an extraordinary place in Calabria into an auteur film set.” – comments Andrea Cicini, CEO of Gruppo Matches / GM Production. “Shot entirely on film among the spectacular Calanchi di Palizzi, in the province of Reggio Calabria, “Puca”, thanks also to the patronage of the Municipality of Palizzi, has faithfully restored that almost lunar landscape, suspended between land and sea, making it in fact one of the co-protagonists of the story.”
“Puca”, an exclusive for Italy’s Rai Cinema Channel, the second film produced by GM Production, the cinema division and independent production company of the Gruppo Matches communications agency, with the associated producers Limbo film, Hubris Pictures, Eidos Film and Red Couch Pictures, thus enters the competition in Venice.
Distributed by Allegorie Film, written by the director together with Antonio Romagnoli, shot on Kodac 16mm film, “Puca” brings to the big screen for the first time the surprising faces of the young Calabrian actresses Annunziata Celeste Vadicamo, Elisa Rosaci and Ludovica Tassoni, dealing with the themes of adolescence, including the desire to escape. A remote and beautiful place in Calabria, three sisters, summer, the sea. It’s the 90s, on an early summer afternoon. While their parents sleep, Lotti and Malibu (these are the nicknames the sisters give each other) decide to secretly go out to the bar, among others frequented by a boy they both like. Puca, the youngest sister, wants to go with them at all costs, otherwise her parents will wake up with her screams. The three then set off and, as they pass by the beach, Puca approaches the shore and says he saw a mermaid…
“Knowing that Puca is being programmed at Sic is an indescribable emotion” – comments the director from Mesagne, in the province of Brindisi, Sara Scalera. “It’s a story I’ve wanted to make for years because it’s tied to my roots and the endless summers of the ’90s. I feel lucky to have met wonderful, passionate people along the way of making the film who believed in it as much as I did.”
“At the center of the film, the first experiences as girls, the desire to live according to new rules, but also – through the character of little Puca – the world of childhood, with its extravagance and its need for imagination” – explains Cristina Borsatti, Manager of GM Production. “An all-female story, set in a beautiful place suspended in time – the splendid and unique Calanchi di Palizzi, in the province of Reggio Calabria -, the vision of a new voice in the Italian cinematographic panorama, Sara Scalera, with whom we are already imagining new projects.”
“A year full of visions and fantastic surprises. We produced two short films in 2026, PUCA, which arrives at the SIC in the exceptional fifth represented by Venice, and QUINN, which flies to Hollywood at the prestigious HollyShorts Film Festival in Los Angeles. I am very happy and proud of these results and, naturally, of the work of the young Sara Scalera, a delicate film that caresses the values of life that, as a father, I personally care a lot about. Let’s enjoy these goals, they are an important stimulus for our next productions, such as the DocuFilm on the athlete Andy Diaz and a documentary dedicated to Luciano Pavarotti, for the twentieth anniversary of his death, are in preparation. I am sure that it will only be the first step of an extraordinary journey.” – adds CEO Andrea Cicini.
The result obtained by “Puca” – the selection at the 41st International Critics’ Week (SIC) – testifies to the effectiveness of the Calabria Film Commission Foundation’s commitment in supporting quality productions and promoting Calabria as a place of culture, creativity and development, where the landscape heritage becomes a strategic resource for cinema. After all, this is precisely the mission of the Foundation: to enhance talents, encourage the growth of the cinematographic sector and make Calabria an increasingly recognizable and competitive natural setting on the national and international scene.