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THE LUNCH

By Gianluca VASSALLO

WHITE BOX STUDIO SRL - as PROD / FIN

Social issues - Pre-Production 2024

A Mexican chef and a Trumpian voter held together by an unconscious act of reconciliation, while in the background the electoral battle for the American presidential elections takes place.

- Year of production
- 2024
- Genres
- Social issues, Documentary
- Countries
- ITALY
- Languages
- ENGLISH-UNITED STATES
- Budget
- 0 - 0.3 M$
- Duration
- 75 mn
- Director(s)
- Gianluca VASSALLO
- Writer(s)
- Gianluca VASSALLO
- Producer(s)
- Maddalena SATTA (WHITE BOX STUDIO SRL)
- Synopsis
- The Lunch tells the story of a journey from New York to North Dakota, during the last month of the presidential campaign, in search of a story that exists— or rather, dozens of stories that exist in every family restaurant in America, in each of the elegant kitchens, in every culinary club in the country.
  But in this film, we are interested in the smallest possible class distance, the proximity of condition between the antipodes. Our observation, therefore, will be focused on Diners, places of daily and interclass food, to find, after perfecting our gaze from city to city, in the exact middle of the northernmost state, a Mexican cook who prepares lunch every day for a Trump voter.
  The journey will show us an America that transforms, along the path from the metropolis to the most isolated communities, from a social, ethnic, anthropological, architectural, and landscape point of view. We will observe the presence of political symbols, the polarization expressed through clothes, gardens, flags, behaviors while listening to the candidates' rallies, almost a soundtrack of a kind of American dream. A dream that has a name, a value, a meaning, and a different story for everyone.
  Along the way, in every village, city, suburb where we stop, we will ask everyone: What is America? This track, made up of hundreds of testimonies, acting as a counterpoint to the voices of Harris and Trump, will guide our human, political, and poetic journey until we reach the protagonists of the story in North Dakota.
  The Lunch is a documentary about a simple daily story that challenges—without any awareness of doing so—the political rhetoric of the entire contemporary West, with a bite of a hamburger that has the poetic strength of an unconscious act of reconciliation.
- Partners & financing
- White Box Studio
- Production schedule
- Pre-production began in June 2024, filming will begin in October and end in the second week of November 2024. Post-production will be completed by January 7. The film will be ready for festival distribution from January 20th.
- Beginning of shooting
- Oct 01, 2024
- End of shooting
- Nov 07, 2024