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Vulnerare, by Sergio Mario Illuminato, is not a conventional short film, nor is it meant to be. It hovers between cinema and performance, more a meditation than a narrative. Set in an abandoned prison, it asks us not to follow a story but to assemble one. Hints are scattered like fragments—textures of stone and rust, the echo of footsteps, the suggestion of lives once confined here.
Illuminato employs impressionistic technique. A wall, a barred window, a corridor: each is presented with an attention so tactile that we almost feel the roughness under our fingertips. Modern dancers move through these spaces like specters, their bodies suggesting prisoners, or time itself, flowing and fading. The prison becomes less a location than a memory.
The camerawork is frequently striking. Illuminato has an eye for texture and composition. Yet there are moments where the images betray their tools: shots that look like they were captured on a smartphone, stabilized to the point of distraction, wobbling in a way that calls attention to itself rather than the subject. It’s a reminder of how thin the line can be between intimacy and accident.
The editing, however, is compelling. The film offers just enough for us to stitch together our own narrative, a kind of participatory act between filmmaker and viewer. Most impressive is the sound design. Through clever use of J and L cuts, the audio pulls us forward, guiding us from one part of the prison to another, creating continuity out of discontinuity.
Vulnerare does not seek to explain. It seeks to immerse. It is about the experience of a place haunted by stories we can only imagine. The flaws are visible, but so is the ambition—and that makes it linger.
For its radical ability to merge aesthetic rigor with experimental vision, the jury of the Hollywood Best Indie Film Awards 2025 is proud to honor Sergio Mario Illuminato with the award for Best Direction / Experimental Film. Vulnerare has been recognized as a work of rare intensity, one that transforms limitations into artistic language and turns imperfection into a powerful poetic statement.