Mauro Fiore Captures Childhood and Imagination with GFX ETERNA 55

Inside the Cinematography of Dove Sono Mamma e Papà? – Left Alone

Dove Sono Mamma e Papà? (Left Alone) is a short film that lies at the intersection of narrative sensitivity and cinematic craft, offering a measured exploration of medium-format cinematography and using the FUJIFILM GFX ETERNA 55. Directed by Fabio Rao, with cinematography by Oscar-winning Director of Photography Mauro Fiore ASC, the film serves as a case study in how image format, visual intent, and storytelling can align when technology is approached as a narrative partner rather than as a defining gesture.

The project builds on an ongoing collaboration between Rao and Fujifilm, developed over several years across both motion and still photography. The short film Nightbirds marked Rao’s first encounter with medium format in motion, paving the way for Dove sono Mamma e Papà? (Left Alone). “With this film, I felt it was the right moment to fully embrace medium-format cinematography, using GFX ETERNA 55, a camera that immediately resonated with the emotional scale and sensitivity of the story we wanted to tell.”

For Mauro Fiore, the project also represents an opportunity to test a new cinematic tool within a narrative framework that values restraint, perception, and emotional proximity.

Storytelling and visual approach

At its core, Dove Sono Mamma e Papà? unfolds from a simple narrative premise that gradually opens into more ambiguous emotional terrain. Leo and Nesto are two close friends immersed in the everyday rituals of childhood, videogames, drones, and casual mischief, until they wake one morning to discover that all adults have vanished. What initially feels like complete freedom slowly reveals deeper implications. Without authority or imposed rules, imagination flourishes, but responsibility begins to surface.

Visually, the film avoids over stylization. Rao’s intention was clear: “From the very beginning, my intention was for the camera to quietly serve the story rather than call attention to itself. Every shot had a narrative purpose.” That restraint became the foundation upon which Fiore built the film’s visual language.

As Mauro Fiore explains, “The visual approach of this film was very interesting in how it came about, because I had many discussions with Fabio. He wanted to place the story in a situation that felt like fantasy, reality, and hyper-reality. So, we discussed all these possibilities.” Rather than separating these dimensions through distinct visual treatments, the filmmakers chose continuity and subtle modulation, allowing shifts in perception to emerge naturally within the frame.

The camera often remains close to the characters, and sometimes uncomfortably so, before occasionally opening up to reveal the surrounding world. This balance between intimacy and distance becomes central to how the story is experienced, keeping the audience aligned with the characters’ evolving sense of freedom and unease.

Medium format, lenses, and spatial rhythm

The choice to shoot with FUJIFILM GFX ETERNA 55, combined with the Premista lenses, shaped not only the film’s aesthetic but also its internal rhythm. The medium-format sensor allowed Fiore to hold more spatial information within each frame, reinforcing a sense of depth and dimensionality while maintaining emotional closeness to the characters.

Mauro Fiore’s long experience with Fujinon Premista lenses, particularly Fujinon Premista 28-100mT2.9, played a decisive role in translating this potential into practice. “I have quite a bit of experience with Premista lenses, and I’m especially familiar with the 28–100mm. It performs amazingly well,” he notes.

For Fabio, the camera’s huge sensor is what truly unlocked that optical potential. “The format itself amplifies that vision,” he explains. “The expansiveness of the sensor allows us to capture more in every frame, giving the film a distinctive look and a narrative rhythm.”

This combination of large-format sensor and lenses proved especially valuable when working in confined spaces. Medium and even wide shots could be captured from very short distances, sometimes as close as one meter, without sacrificing spatial coherence. The result is a visual language that feels open and immersive yet never detached from the characters at its center.

Aspect ratio was approached with the same narrative sensitivity. “We had several discussions regarding filming in a 2.35 or 2.39 aspect ratio,” Fiore explains. “Automatically, it makes you feel like the world around you is surrounding you.” The widescreen frame subtly reinforces the film’s emotional tension, mirroring the children’s experience of a world that is suddenly expansive, unfamiliar, and undefined.

Lighting the path home

Although Dove Sono Mamma e Papà?  is not autobiographical, its connection to place carries particular resonance for Mauro Fiore. Long based in the United States, Calabria remains his homeland and returning to shoot there added an understated but meaningful layer to the project.

The film was shot entirely in real locations across the region during the height of summer, in towns and spaces that remained active and crowded throughout production. Rather than reshaping locations to fit the film, the crew adapted their methods to each place day by day. Calabria’s natural light, often harsh and vertical at midday, then softer and more sculptural in the late afternoon, became an expressive element rather than a constraint.

Supported by a fully local crew, Fiore’s visual approach drew on both technical precision and familiarity with the environment. The region’s landscapes, light, and rhythms quietly inform the film’s tone, grounding its more surreal elements in a tangible sense of place. In this way, Calabria becomes more than a setting: it is an unspoken presence within the film’s visual identity.

A camera in the service of narrative

From a production standpoint, Fujifilm GFX ETERNA 55 proved itself as a Film-making camera designed for professional, narrative-driven workflows. Its robust cinema-style construction, industry-standard connections, adaptable native lens mount, and visually stepless internal electronic variable ND filter offered flexibility across a wide range of shooting conditions.

The F-Log2 C profile provided substantial latitude for color grading, while Fujifilm’s Film Simulations and new Film Simulation 3D LUTs, each inspired by analog film stocks, expanded creative options without imposing a predetermined aesthetic. The camera’s design encouraged choice rather than prescription.

Rao also explored GFX ETERNA 55 independently in a documentary context, pairing it with a rehoused Fujinon EBC 28mm lens and using ACROS Film Simulation, an experience he describes as intuitive and expressive.

For Mauro Fiore, the camera also aligns with a broader creative philosophy: “Every film needs its own way of being told. Every film needs its own story. Whether it’s oil paints, tempera, or pastels, it’s always a matter of what is right for that narrative. I feel the same way about cameras.” Within this framework, the GFX ETERNA 55 is not positioned as a universal solution, but as a tool whose value emerges through its relationship with story, place, and creative intent.

Taken together, Dove Sono Mamma e Papà? offers a considered example of how medium-format cinematography, guided by an experienced visual author, can support intimate storytelling, balancing scale and proximity while remaining firmly anchored to narrative purpose.

Dove Sono Mamma e Papà? – Left Alone: Credits

• Produced by Open Fields Productions / Filmora Studio/ FUJIFILM
• With the contribution of Calabria Film Commission
• In collaboration with Ciakalabria, Aeropix, Audio Portrait Studio
• With the free patronage of Municipality of Cassano all’Ionio / Associazione Laghi di Sibari
• Directed by: Fabio Rao Director of Photography: Mauro Fiore, ASC Story and screenplay: Enrico Miceli / Fabio Rao Produced by: Fabrizio Nucci / Fabio Ra Executive producers: Fabrizio Nucci / Marc Cattrall/ Silvia Carapellese/ Francesco Spisti/ Marika Gherardi
• Editing: Francesca Naccarato / Fabio Rao Visual effects: Alessio Cagnano Original music: Alessandro Papaianni Production sound mixer: Simone Casile Production designer: Antonio Giocondo Costumes: Laura Scagliola Makeup and hair: Marinella Giorni / Sandra Perri Assistant director: Giulia Rossi Casting Director: Alessia Iacopetta

CAST
Leo: Luigi Chiera
Nesto: Ludovico Maria Esposito
Martina: Maria Carmela Iris Trotta
Alba: Beatrice Carmela Malizia
Fulvia: Cecilia Mussari
Fiordaliso: Alessandro Castriota Scanderbeg
Sara: Mariasilvia Greco
Dario: Carlo Gallo
Vanda: Giovanna Chiara Pasini
Man with red shoes: Saverio La Ruina
Don Cino: Giancarlo Cauteruccio
Voices of Orion: Lorenzo Cordara / Giulia Musso

With the extraordinary participation of: Dario Del Luca / Ivana Russo

Production manager: Carmela Bilotto
Production coordinator: Giusy Cervadoro
Script supervisor: Enrico Miceli
Location manager: Gianluca Salerno
Production supervisor: Francesco Falcone
Production secretary: Samuele Leogrande
Runner: Alessandro Morrone / Carlo Iozzi
Steadicam operator: Marco Vignoni
First assistant camera: Umberto Scimitto
Second assistant camera: Gianluca Gattabria
Camera assistant: Nicola Labate
Second camera assistant: Pasquale Remia
DIT: Roberto Cavalera
Data manager: Claudia Gullà
Video assist: Anselmo De Filippis
Set photographers: Pierpaolo Perri / Raffaella Arena
Backstage video: Francesca Naccarato
Drone pilots: Dario Della Mora / Walter Finco / Marco Martino
Key grip: Antonio “Lupin” Caracciolo
Grip: Francesco Coscarella
Gaffer: Gianfranco Mastroianni
Electrician: Mattia Cristofaro
Assistant production designer: Agata Colao
Props master: Felice Adriani
Laborers: Emilio D’Elia / Raffaele Lisco
Seamstress: Vincenza Salvino
Personal assistant to Mauro Fiore: Walter Carpino

Color grading, deliveries: Pyramid Factory / Alessandro Ammendola
Sound editing and audio mix: Stefano Di Fiore / Marco Marcini

MUSIC
Solo cello: Mattia De Angelis
Piano/synthesizers/percussion: Alessandro Papaianni
Solo flute/solo French horn: Alexandre Demaan
Strings: RDL String Quartet
Recording, mix & mastering of original music: Audio Portrait Studio

Insurance: Howden – Assimovie
Workplace safety: Sicurlav

The Production and the Director thank

GFX ETERNA 55 DEVELOPMENT TEAM
BLU ACADEMY by Barbara Pasqua
MOVIE MOUSE FACILITY SERVICE
ASSOLAGHI SECURITY SERVICE
ISTITUTO COMPRENSIVO LAUROPOLI – SIBARI – CASSANO J.
THE SCHOOL PRINCIPAL PROF. MICHELE MARZANA
THE STUDENTS OF THE MAROS IN TEATRO SCHOOL OF ARTS
MAROS EVENTI – PIKEMA APS

Christina Pavlì
Santino Cundari
Mariarosaria Bianco
Katalin Seres
Rossella Ciappetta
Fausta Oliva
Domenico Nicoletti
Claudio Valerio
Andrea Solano
Gianpaolo Giacobini
Ottavio Marino
Tereza Lanza
Massimo Romanelli and family
Domenico Peluso and family
Mario Varca and Sibarifly
Luigi Guaragna and Sofia Maimone
Don Pietro Groccia and the Church of Jesus the Good Shepherd of Sibari
Teresa Tucci
Maristella Resta
Giovanna Giordano
Natale Giordano
Giovanni Gattabria
Vincenzo Gattabria
Imagin’Hair Cosenza
Endless Summer House
Leonardo, Luciano and Francesco Golia
Angela Concistrè
Gabriele Albanesi
Luca Ardenti
Epos Film
Hotel Royal Cosenza
Roberta Giordano
Germana Giordano
Mariuccia Fiore
Francesco Malvaso
Benedetto Tucci
Alessandra Fucilla
Ruggero Fucilla