06/12/2021 - Produced by Ascent Film and Nightswim, Alberto Mascia’s first work is set in the near future where prisoners serve their sentences in a deep-sleep state

Shooting has only just wrapped in Rome on Hypersleep [+see also:
trailer
film profile], a thriller set in a future so near it could almost be confused for the present. The first work by Alberto Mascia - who also penned the film’s screenplay, which won an Experimental Solinas Prize, alongside Enrico Saccà - the movie stars Stefano Accorsi (You Came Back [+see also:
trailer
film profile]), who’s supported by Caterina Shulha, Astrid Meloni, Andrea Germani, Paolo Pierobon and Sandra Ceccarelli. Filming unfolded over a period of 7 weeks, based in the capital and its surrounds.

In Italy, old, dirty, congested prisons full of violence and abuse are a dim and distant memory. Now prisoners serve their sentences in a state of deep sleep which renders them inoffensive and has drastically reduced reoffending rates. Hypersleep is an efficient, economically viable and reliable system. That is, until the day when David Damiani (Stefano Accorsi), a psychologist charged with monitoring prisoners’ mental states, finds himself faced with a prisoner about whom all information has been lost. It’s an unexpected event which triggers a chain of unforeseeable event, forcing David to face up to the ghosts of his very own past.

The film’s photography comes courtesy of Matteo Vieille Rivara, set design is by Fabrizio D'Arpino - who recently worked on another dystopic story, Mondocane [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], by Alessandro Celli - , costumes are those of Maria Cristina La Parola, casting comes courtesy of Valeria Miranda (of the Italian Union of Casting Directors) and editing is that of Mario Marrone.

Hypersleep is produced by Ascent Film and Nightswim, with support from the Italian Ministry of Culture’s Film and Audiovisual Department.

(Translated from Italian)