Friedrich Nietzsche

Pitting notable historical and pop culture figures, real and fictional, against one another in a rap battle format.

Drawing on the vast body of Nietzsche’s work and weaving together his writings and his thought, Leonardo Petrillo has created a remarkable work that analyses the paradoxical, at times extreme and contradictory thinking of modernity’s most controversial philosopher.

"Inspired by Friedrich Nietzsche's seminal work 'Thus Spoke Zarathustra', THE GREAT CITY is a profound cinematic inquiry into the ontology of truth within the digital ruins of the modern world. The film navigates the psychological landscape of the 'Last Man', exploring the encroaching desert of the soul and the 'blind point' of human consciousness. Through a minimalist and melancholic visual language, it challenges the viewer to confront the illusions of contemporary existence and the search for authentic meaning in an era of absolute spiritual void."

In a mental institution the patients see themselves as people like Jesus, Lazarus, Martha, Mary, Adam, Eve, Sonia, Raskolnikov, Aliosha e Ivan Karamasov, a Philosopher, a Profet, Santa Teresa d'Avila, reciting the Divine Comedy.

A cinematographic essay, without dialogues, about the months Nietszche spent in Turin, Italy, with narration quoted by his original writings.

Zarathustra spends his days in his NY apartment, talking to and confiding in a pin-up on his wall, and on this occasion his delusional dialog with the porn idol results in his declaration that he must ‘descend’, as if being reluctantly chosen for some important or divine mission.