Carolina Cavalli’s Venice-Bound ‘The Kidnapping of Arabella,’ With Benedetta Porcaroli and Chris Pine, Debuts Clip (EXCLUSIVE)

Carolina Cavalli returns to the Venice Film Festival with her second feature “The Kidnapping of Arabella,” following her debut “Amanda,” which played there in 2022. The new film, which stars Benedetta Porcaroli and co-stars Chris Pine and Lucrezia Guglielmino, debuts its first clip here.

“The Kidnapping of Arabella,” which has its world premiere in Horizons, follows 28-year-old Italian woman Holly. She has always felt like the wrong version of herself and that her life hasn’t turned out as expected. When she meets a little girl named Arabella, she becomes convinced the child is her younger self. Eager to run away from home, Arabella decides to play along with Holly’s mission: to go back and become someone special.

In a statement, Cavalli said: “The story of ‘The Kidnapping of Arabella’ isn’t really about a kidnapping in the usual sense, despite what the title suggests. It’s mostly about a girl finding her own way to fix the past, make peace with regrets, quiet anxiety about the future, and let go of unmet expectations.

“The main character, Holly, belongs to a group of people—or perhaps a generation—afraid that life is always happening somewhere else. Like when we were children, imagining a thousand possible lives, even if we’d probably only live one. But thinking like that as adults devalues reality; it distracts from the real world, its meaning, its beauty, its injustices, and our own role in it all.

“Although ‘The Kidnapping of Arabella’ feels somewhat like a comedy, it began with serious reflections I found on Reddit and other online forums, as well as everyday feelings of my own. That’s why I wrote this story—it seemed like something many people could relate to, or at least recognize.”

The film is produced by Antonio Celsi and Annamaria Morelli for Elsinore Film, and Massimiliano Orfei, Luisa Borella and Davide Novelli for Piperfilm. It is a production by Elsinore Film, The Apartment and Piperfilm in collaboration with Tenderstories. International sales are being handled by Piperfilm and Charades.

Cavalli co-wrote “Fremont” (2023) with director Babak Jalali, which premiered at Sundance. She was nominated for the British Independent Film Awards and won the Independent Spirit Award in the John Cassavetes category.