The last we heard about Terry Gilliam's 20-minute short film "The Wholly Family" was well over a year ago, when it took home Best Short Film at the European Film Awards. Not bad at all for a movie that got its start as a project sponsored by the pasta company Garofalo as part of an annual series of films about Naples. Well, Gilliam took that basic premise, ran with it, and now you can finally watch it.
After doing a brief festival circuit run (mostly in Europe), and being available to stream (again, mostly in Europe) those of us stateside can finally sit down with the movie, as it has wormed its way online. Penned by Gilliam, the film stars Cristiana Capotondi, Douglas Dean, Nicolas Connolly and Sergio Solli in a typically fantastical story where a visit to a market winds up leading a kid into the kind of dream world that the director has practically trademarked at this point.
Here's the official synopsis, followed by the film:
A crowded street in Naples city center, plenty of shops selling presepi. A wealthy American couple and Jake, their 10 years-old child, try to push their way through the crowd. While husband and wife argue which street to take, the boy is unwillingly separated from them.