Lost behind enemy lines, a soldier mother confronts guilt, trauma and her own identity when a mysterious enemy child leads her across a dreamlike battlefield where memory, grief and love blur together.
After telling her son Michael the fable of The Worm and the Butterfly, Juliet, a mother and a soldier, sinks into a disturbing dream and finds herself alone behind enemy lines.
Lost in a landscape suspended between war, memory and hallucination, she meets Sam, a mysterious enemy child she takes as her prisoner. Together they cross this world until Juliet hears a familiar voice calling her: it is Michael, but she cannot recognise her son.
When Michael disappears, Juliet searches for him desperately as reality and memory begin to blur. Guided by the image of a butterfly, she is forced to confront the trauma, the guilt and what the war has left inside her.
One story. Two forms.
The Worm and the Butterfly was born as a single narrative universe developed through two languages: a short film and an illustrated children's book.
In the film, The Worm and the Butterfly is the fable Juliet tells her son Michael. The story gradually becomes part of the film's world and a metaphor for transformation, fear and the bond between mother and son.
That same fable then comes to life as an illustrated children's book, turning one element of the narrative universe into an autonomous work able to exist beyond the film.
- Film
- The Worm and the Butterfly · 2025
- Illustrated book
- The Worm and the Butterfly
The people behind every frame.
01Crew06credits
- Written & Directed byFrank Zanella
- Director of PhotographyStefano Morcaldo
- Edited byMassimiliano Feresin
- SoundDiego Schiavo · Gabriele Confaloni
- MusicGiuseppe Calandrini
- ProductionOverclock