

Festival Season:
September 2025
VIRAHA

Directors:
Writers:
Andrea De Santis
Andrea De Santis
Producers:
Andrea De Santis
Run Time:
1:04:00
Awarded for the following Category(s):
Awarded Category(s)
VIRAHA — a Hindi word evoking nostalgia and the tension toward what has been lost — tells the story of Marco and Elena, a couple in silent crisis who choose to spend a relaxing weekend on the island that once was their summer residence, abandoned now for many years. That return, born as a brief escape from city frenzy, soon reveals itself as an unexpected gateway: the island’s physical perimeter detaches them from the world, becoming a psychological cage, yet at the same time offering expanded time that becomes a tool for reflection.
The elements of an overwhelming nature and the long silences dismantle the ego’s superstructures and lay bare their relationship, once warped by possession and selfishness. Forced to confront each other, Marco and Elena discover themselves part of a larger breath, where man, universe, and existence are woven of the same fabric. In that fertile void, the nostalgia invoked by the title transforms into a desire for rebirth.
Reconciliation occurs not through decisive words, but through the shared listening to the island’s silences: love is reborn free from the logic of possession, reconfigured as a universal force of connection. Thus the brief holiday planned for relaxation becomes an initiatory passage that heals their bond and restores awareness of their own essence.
Narrated with a deliberately slender plot, spare dialogue, and contemplative pacing, VIRAHA does not rely on conventional entertainment codes. A faint echo of early‑twentieth‑century Mitteleuropean culture and a deliberately vintage photographic choice immerse the viewer in an undefined past, while the contemporary island becomes a laboratory of poetic resistance. The film invites us to question the fragility of the “normals” dictated by our time’s customs, seeking to project the spectator beyond the ego, offering the possibility to consider a love capable of embracing the infinite.

Submitter Statement
Viraha was born from a personal and creative urgency: the need to explore distance, absence, and love in their most essential form. In a world that moves ever faster, I felt the need to slow down—to restore weight to time, to make space for silence, for waiting, for the gaze.
I chose a stripped-down, almost rarefied narrative, where dialogue is reduced to let images, bodies, and gestures speak for themselves. The film’s slowness is not a stylistic quirk but a poetic and political choice—an invitation to pause, to contemplate, to feel.
The film was made with minimal resources but complete creative freedom. I personally took care of the screenplay, direction, and production, working with a small team who fully embraced the spirit of the project. Every frame, every sound, every light was crafted with care, intimacy, and a deeply human approach.
Viraha is my first step in a path I want to walk with honesty, freedom, and awareness. It is an act of love toward cinema as a space of reflection, emotion, and inner search.
Andrea de Santis (Rome, 1977) is an emerging Italian filmmaker in the independent cinema scene. With a background in science and international entrepreneurship, he founded Sidera Film to develop original, high-quality film projects characterized by visual coherence, narrative depth, and full creative independence.
His debut feature film, Viraha, sees de Santis taking on the roles of writer, director, and producer. The film is a contemplative exploration of time, love, and the human place within nature and the universe. Entirely self-produced, Viraha stands out for its essential aesthetic and visual storytelling, deliberately departing from conventional narrative structures.
He is currently working on new film projects, continuing his artistic and professional journey with the goal of establishing a strong presence in the international film industry.
Key Cast
Roberto Evangelista, Roberta Crolle
Other Credits