Uno (and all the other numbers)
No one is ever just a number
Directed by LEONE
words by Katie Huelin
Set in Villaggio Cirulli, Abruzzo, UNO (and all the other numbers) is a modern fairy tale about identity and imagination. Directed by the talented Leone Balduzzi, and produced by C41, this short film authentically transforms real encounters with young refugees into a portrait of hope, a reminder that “no one is just a number.”
Shot on 16mm, UNO carries a lot of warmth, where every grain feels like it holds emotion, adding layers of vulnerability and ultimately, captures the reality. Fashion, curated in collaboration with Danilo Paura, becomes a language of self-expression and quiet defiance, while the sound design by Lorenzo D’Anniballe reveals the invisible layers of each life.
Intimate yet universal, UNO is ultimately an act of listening. It is a film that finds beauty and belonging in human connection, and the courage to keep dreaming.
UNO feels both intimate and universal at the same time. How did the story start for you, and why did Villaggio Cirulli and its young people become the centre of it?
UNO began as a search not for a story, but for a human presence. I went to Villaggio Cirulli looking for the right faces, voices, and energies for another film I was developing. But once I started meeting the young refugees living there, something shifted. Their lives, their humour, their way of holding on to dignity in a place of uncertainty...that became the story. The short film grew naturally from that encounter. It stopped being about casting and turned into creating a space where these people could express themselves freely, with honesty and light.
You chose to shoot on 16mm, which immediately gives UNO an authentic and raw energy. What drew you to that medium, and what did it add to the story you wanted to tell?
I chose 16mm because it carries humanity in its texture. The film grain absorbs imperfections, such as dust, breath, and environmental vibrations, all the things that make reality feel alive. Working with real people rather than professional actors, I needed a format that could hold emotional truth without artifice. 16mm gave us both discipline and spontaneity: every take mattered, every mistake became part of the film’s heartbeat. It added a layer of vulnerability, and that’s what UNO is all about.
“UNO taught me that cinema can be an act of restitution, giving back time, dignity, and voice to those who are usually spoken for.”
The fashion choices in UNO feel like more than just clothes, they almost become part of each person’s identity. How did you and Danilo Paura work together to make fashion a form of storytelling?
In UNO, fashion isn’t aesthetic; it’s emotional. Danilo and I wanted the clothes to reflect how each person builds identity from fragments: what they brought with them, what they found, and what they dream of. Our collaboration was very organic; we spoke a lot about the power of self-expression in environments where individuality is often erased. The way someone wears a jacket or chooses a colour can be an act of resistance, or a quiet declaration of belonging. With Danilo, we turned those choices into another layer of narrative.
The sound design is great and doesn’t just accompany the images, it feels like it carries the characters’ inner worlds. How did you and Lorenzo D’Anniballe shape that soundscape?
From the start, I wanted sound to act like memory, not something that sits outside the image, but something that lives inside it. Lorenzo and I built a porous soundscape, full of layers: the echo of a courtyard, the wind through a corridor, a distant laugh. These sounds reveal the invisible part of each character, what they remember, what they long for, what they fear. Sound became a way to move between the visible and the invisible, between documentary and dream.
At the core of UNO is this refusal to see people as just numbers. After spending time listening to the voices and dreams of these young people, how has that changed or deepened your own idea of storytelling?
This experience reminded me that storytelling begins with listening. Too often, refugees are reduced to data, to statistics. But when you sit with them, you realise how much beauty, humour, and complexity exist beyond the label. UNO taught me that cinema can be an act of restitution, giving back time, dignity, and voice to those who are usually spoken for. I no longer see filmmaking as representation, but as an encounter. The story belongs to whoever dares to share it.
For you personally, what does “home” mean today, and how does that sense of home shape the stories you tell?
For me, “home” isn’t a fixed geography; it’s a state of relation. It’s built through the people you meet, the languages you learn, and the moments you share. Spending time in Villaggio Cirulli, I understood that home can exist even in transience, in the act of creating community despite displacement. That feeling guides my work: I try to tell stories where home is something we build together, frame by frame, through empathy and imagination.
PRODUCED BY C41@c41.eu
DIRECTED BY LEONE @leonedirector
STORY BY
LEONE, GIORGIA PEDINI, NICOLE SALOTTI @leonedirector @giorgia.pedini @nicolesalotti
CINEMATOGRAPHY BY
STEFANO PAUSSA @paputznack
EDITED BY
ANNA GABRIELA SEIKO @annagabrielaseiko
COSTUME DESIGN BY
DANILO PAURA
SOUND MIX BY
LORENZO D’ANNIBALLE @lorenzo.danniballe
AI BY
JINDY WANG @wjindy
SPECIAL THANKS TO
VILLAGGIO CIRULLI, SPARTA GYM ACADEMY