Via Corbaglius, in the quarter of Santalamenera in the suburbs of Casteddu, Cagliari. This is the precise setting of the story, as mentioned by the protagonist, 11-year-old Cate who, in recounting her day, addressing the viewers directly, leaves the place she lives. The film was actually shot mainly in the quarter of Sant’Elia in Cagliari, with its huge buildings made up of criss-crossing stairways, internal squares and overall more working-class feel, bringing it in line with Atzeni’s book, which sets the story in the quarter of San Michele. It is here, a house full of siblings, grandchildren, a busy mother and a layabout father, that Cate and her best friend Luna’s journey begins, in discovery of the Sardinian capital on the sunny day of 3 August.
We travel down viale del Poetto by bus and arrive at the town’s beach. From Poetto, with its white sand and turquoise sea, we move towards the town centre. The places the two teenagers pass through are all cited by the narrating voice of the protagonist: piazza Repubblica, via Manno, the street of shops where they have an ice-cream, the bastion of San Remy where they take in a beautiful view of the city, and then Santa Gilla and its shopping centre where the two protagonists have another ice-cream, mount Urpinu, the city’s park where they have a break and lie down on the grass, and the station, which is also the bus terminus.
Via Corbaglius, in the quarter of Santalamenera in the suburbs of Casteddu, Cagliari. This is the precise setting of the story, as mentioned by the protagonist, 11-year-old Cate who, in recounting her day, addressing the viewers directly, leaves the place she lives. The film was actually shot mainly in the quarter of Sant’Elia in Cagliari, with its huge buildings made up of criss-crossing stairways, internal squares and overall more working-class feel, bringing it in line with Atzeni’s book, which sets the story in the quarter of San Michele. It is here, a house full of siblings, grandchildren, a busy mother and a layabout father, that Cate and her best friend Luna’s journey begins, in discovery of the Sardinian capital on the sunny day of 3 August.
We travel down viale del Poetto by bus and arrive at the town’s beach. From Poetto, with its white sand and turquoise sea, we move towards the town centre. The places the two teenagers pass through are all cited by the narrating voice of the protagonist: piazza Repubblica, via Manno, the street of shops where they have an ice-cream, the bastion of San Remy where they take in a beautiful view of the city, and then Santa Gilla and its shopping centre where the two protagonists have another ice-cream, mount Urpinu, the city’s park where they have a break and lie down on the grass, and the station, which is also the bus terminus.
Based on the story of the same name by Sergio Atzeni from 1996, Bellas Mariposas (Belle Farfalle) tells the story of a day in the lives of two teenagers on the outskirts of Cagliari in August.
