Vincenza Pasini - Short Movie
The Story
Vincenza Pasini was born in Sovizzo in 1356. A peasant woman with no title, no power, no name written in any book of history. She married, followed her husband to Vicenza, and lived as countless women of her time did: quietly, invisibly, carrying the weight of each day in her hands.
In 1426, and again in 1428, she claimed to have seen the Madonna on the hill of Monte Berico. She was not believed, not the first time. The city was ravaged by plague. People were afraid. And a woman with a vision was easier to dismiss than to trust.
She persisted. She was heard. And the sanctuary that rose from that hill, the Santuario della Madonna di Monte Berico, still stands today, one of the most beloved places of worship in the Veneto.
Vincenza died in 1431. She rests beneath the altar of the very sanctuary her faith made possible.
Watching Vincenza, we recognize ourselves — in anyone who has ever carried something immense inside, unseen by the world.
The Territory
One of the central challenges of this production was the landscape itself. To tell Vincenza's story honestly, the camera needed to find Sovizzo as it once was or as close as the present allows. That meant searching for corners of the territory that had resisted time. Angles uncontaminated by the modern. Stone, light, and silence that could still hold the weight of the 15th century.
But a place does not give itself up easily. You have to ask for it.
The scouting process became something we hadn't entirely anticipated: a collective act of memory, driven by the people of Sovizzo and the wider community around it. Locals who knew which courtyard still had the right stones. Who remembered a wall, a path, a view that the centuries hadn't touched. People who carried the landscape inside them, not as tourists, but as inheritors.
That generosity changed the nature of the work. What could have been a purely technical search became a series of conversations, of trust extended and received. Someone would open a gate. Someone else would say: have you seen the light there, in the late afternoon? A phone call would lead to a doorway. A doorway would lead to a shot that made everything else fall into place.
This is what community-rooted filmmaking actually looks like, not as a concept, but as a practice. The territory wasn't a backdrop we found. It was something we were given, by people who believed the story was worth telling.
And in that sense, the film was already Vincenza's before a single frame was shot. Because she too had needed people to believe her. She too had needed someone to open a door.
A title like "Una delle Tante" ("one of the many") is almost an act of poetic justice. Because Vincenza was not one of the many. She was the one who spoke when no one wanted to listen.
About This Project
Vincenza — Una delle Tante is an independent short film written by Rossella Menegato and directed by Youssef El Jardouli, produced by the Comune di Sovizzo with the support of the Trentino Film Commission and the Associazione Amici di Thiene. Executive production by Onymous Studios.
Credits
Directed by Youssef DaLima
Written by Rossella Menegato
Produced by Comune di Sovizzo
DOP: Youssef DaLima
Camera Operators: Roberto Di Monte · Youssef DaLima
Assistant Director & Camera: Riccardo Vinjau
Editing, Color, VFX & Compositing: Youssef DaLima
Production Design: Federico Balestro · Giovanni Veronese
Construction Team: Giovanni Veronese · Riccardo Vinjau · Jesse Eugene Young
Continuity Supervisor: Digory Nicoli · Jessica Valente
Runners: Silvia Lo Giudice · Digory Nicoli
Costume Design: Gianna Sasso · Patrizia Schiarante · Maria Teresa Meneghello · Cristina Carli · Giovanna Dal Martello
Make-Up Artists: Giulia Buselato · Eleonora Collareda · Anna Ceranto
Still Photographer: Irene Prisca Pauletto
Second Unit: Jessica Valente · Digory Nicoli
Production Manager: Youssef DaLima
Production Assistants: Ludovica Giacomini Corponi · Maria Germanò
Production Coordination: Elisa Santucci
Executive Producer: Onymous Studios
Starring: Stefania Gori Bonotto · Anna Rossi · Giuseppe Pino Fucito · Jaqueline De Munari · Filippo Antonio Veterlani · Stefania Mazzoran · Giuseppe Lievore · Mario Dalla Fina · Maurizio Mantese · Nereo Filippi Farmar · Paolo Pauletto · Paolo Facchin · Marta Dalle Rive · Jesse Eugene Young · Sharon Nicole Nogara · Emma Chiarello · Silvana Zanotto · Michele Toniolo · Davide Pellattiero · Paolo Ascinar · Matteo Marchetto · Giantonio Canaglia · Nicola Congiu
Si ringraziano anche:
Associazione Amici di Thiene
Castello del Buonconsiglio. Monumenti e collezioni provinciali