Our very own Sharai Bohannon rounded out the year by searching high and low to find the most and least-rated horror films on Letterboxd. Short films often go unrecognized in film and are relegated to off-hours blocks for film festivals–which is a damn shame! Festivals like Final Girls Berlin Film Festival, Popcorn Frights, and Brooklyn Horror Film Festival try to make short films accessible to festival-goers, but we need more festivals to actively endorse short films. Some short films are more interesting and well-done than features that play at certain festivals. One of the films Sharai mentioned in her article was Mosto. So, we decided to put our money where our mouth is and check it out!
If you’d like to find out which horror movies in 2024 were the most (and least) popular on Letterboxd, read our article here!
Elio (Sante Cinquetti) is a young boy who lives with his winemaker parents Ferruccio (Livio Pacella) and Adalia (Rossella Bergo). He spends his summer days forced to work in his parents’s vineyard in the Valpolicella region in Italy. Even with a broken arm, his father vows to “make a man out of [him].” As relations sour between Elio and his father, the wine transforms into a not-so-savory beverage. The hot summer day that Elio meets Stellina (Alice Salzani) is the day his life changes for the better.
A filmmaker’s true creativity and passion are put to the test when it comes to short films. Limited budget, time, and resources force creators to stretch everything in their power to make a compelling final product. Writers/directors Vernante Pallotti and Daniele Zen crafted a visually stunning and fantastically poignant film with Mosto. Mosto is an unconventional coming-of-age story that tackles its subject matter with class and tact. Familial domestic violence is hinted (heavily) upon, but it doesn’t do so in a heavy-handed manner or a way that feels exploitative.
Marco Biotto’s cinematography takes the viewer on a fantastical visual journey. He muddies the line between dream and reality in a way that is not just a joy to watch, but in a way that makes it seem like he has one hell of a career before him. Mixed with Pallotti and Zen’s brilliant directing, Biotto’s cinematography helps craft this compelling story into a short film with an immeasurable gut punch. One shot, particularly, caught me incredibly off guard. There’s a long static shot between Elio and Stellina (I won’t say in what context) where there’s solely dialogue and little action. As the action in the scene kicks up, Biotto picks up the camera and escalates the action through handheld shots. This singular shot could have easily been cut into two or three different shots, and it would have been fine. But having the camera go from a long static shot to a shaky handheld in one take proves these filmmakers know their stuff.
I hope this short gets a North American festival run this year because it deserves to be seen by many. Vernante Pallotti and Daniele Zen are young filmmakers who are just scratching the surface of their potential, and I hope they will take a swing at a feature horror film in the near future. While Mosto isn’t available on YouTube or Vimeo yet, you can check out the trailer below.
