SYNOPSIS

Enea is a teenager living in a grey, polluted and alienating city, where people are digitally connected yet deeply alone. Driven by a word he reads in a book by Italo Calvino — “park” — and by the discovery of a mysterious map among the pages of the book, found in the attic of his grandmother’s house, he decides to leave his old life behind in search of a place that cares for human needs and gives young people room to grow.

In his quest, Enea visits several cities, each representing a different value, and each time he leaves with a symbolic object and a new travelling companion.

As the group draws closer to its destination, Enea has a sudden insight while gazing at the stars. He realises that the “X” on the map does not mark an existing physical place to be reached, but an unknown: a project to be built together.

For Enea, the journey was not a simple escape, but the gathering of the ingredients needed — equality, fairness, freedom, inclusion and diversity — to build a new reality. The story ends with the decision to found Eudaimonìa, the city of happiness, based on sharing and on caring for human values.

 EDUCATIONAL/CREATIVE PROCESS

To the classes involved in the project, the teachers first proposed content and prompts to introduce the working theme — European values — and to encourage a guided discussion on the subject. Once the “city” had been identified as a metaphor for values and human relationships, specific cross-curricular content was shared. The students worked individually or in small groups in class to produce the backgrounds and the characters; then, in small cross-class working groups, they worked on producing the storyboard and specific elements drawn from the text. The activities, including the filming, were coordinated by the project leaders. The story on which the screenplay was based was written by Professor Laura Casella, who discussed the theme with her students. Soundtrack — Title: “La mappa siamo noi” (“We Are the Map”). Original lyrics and music produced with AI (Gemini).