Anton, I watched 'The Valley of Smiles', reporting:

The story resembles a climbing wall; Paolo Strippoli has scattered a generous handful of problems to grab onto. Here, faith takes the form of a ritual cult, and there are so many cages, real and metaphorical, that they could fill an entire zoo.

Synopsis: Physical education teacher Sergio moves to the village of Remis, where the residents are suspiciously serene. Hotel owner Michela reveals the secret: local teenager Matteo is a conduit who, through hugs, takes away people's pain and connects them with the dead.

Of course, the pool of problems turns out to be wider than the mass obsession with the teenage boy. It seems the most global issue becomes the necessity of false optimism, which is embraced by the entire society (read this as a metaphor for social media).

Purification occurs only through experience, that is the key idea of the film.

'The Valley of Smiles' is filled with details like the sound of bells, which by the end of the film triggers a reflex in the viewer: the hero has understood something, you have to freeze in tension. Rites of passage, the ritualistic nature of events are meticulously dissected by Strippoli, and the viewer gets a quite colorful cross-section of the world.

'Horrors are the new rock and roll,' my older brother said. I would add that they are now becoming new social markers, moving further and further away from slashers in the genre column.

The mystical horror is in theaters from July 9, thanks to World Pictures!