Il Ponte(The Bridge)
A trip to replace a dental bridge opens a bridge to the past.

Written and directed by: Giacomo Bendotti
Country: Italy
Year: 2025
Lenght: 16 min
Category: Music/Doc
Language: Italian, Slovenian; Eng Subtitles
Gregorio sets off in a minibus transporting people from Italy to Slovenia in search of affordable dental care. The journey is part of an organised trip, a comprehensive package that includes accommodation, dental treatments, and guided tours. Gregorio follows the programme alongside the group of dental tourists, participating in the schedule activities-until he decides to break away from the group. There is a place that he must visit on his own. For Gregorio, crossing the border into Slovenia also means crossing a border into his own past.
Director's biography
Giacomo Bendotti is a screenwriter for film, television and comics, born in Rome in 1984.
His most recent work as a screenwriter is Another End (directed by Piero Messina), which was presented in competition at the 2024
Berlin Festival. He also wrote The Wait (L’attesa), directed by the same filmmaker and presented in competition at the 2015 Venice
Film Festival. For television, he created and wrote Chiamami ancora amore (Rai – 2021) and contributed to the second season of The bad Guy (Prime Video – 2024). In the field of comics, he is the author and illustrator of the graphic novels Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, published by Becco Giallo Editore.
Il Ponte (The Bridge) marks his debut as director
Credits
Produced by: Raffaella Pontarelli Amarena Film
With: Giorgio Colangeli, Maja Sever
Dop: Gianluca Rocco Palma
Editing: Paola Freddi, Francesco De Matteis
Original Score: Bruno Falanga
Sound supervisor: Alessandro Bianchi
Costume Design: Valentina Bertossi
Set Design: Daniele Braida
With the support of: Friuli Venezia Giulia