Rob Munday

Created as branded piece for the Francis Ford Coppola Winery, Rodrigo Saavedra’s La Macchia Rossa (The Red Stain) is a charming, stylish short more focused on entertainment and storytelling than trying to sell us wine. Told largely from the perspective of an elderly Italian couple and their inventive imagination, this is a fantastical tale that begins in a dry cleaners but then transports its audience into the worlds of underground chess-boxing and passionate affairs.

Speaking to Short of the Week, director Saavedra revealed one of the main aims of his film was to “pay homage to the cinema classics he loves” and it’s easy to see this inspiration in the aesthetic of The Red Stain. Shot on a Alexa Mini using Canon K35 vintage lenses over three busy days in Italy, there’s a real ‘classic’ feel to this short, even if the narrative does contain some more contemporary twists.

Playfully skipping genres in the blink of an eye, The Red Stain goes from romance, to thriller, to mystery with consummate ease, all the time keeping the tone of its central narrative consistent throughout. It’s a surprisingly eventful and inventive storyline, considering it really all takes places in a dry cleaners, but that’s really a testament to the storytelling here. Which is quite apt really, considering the film is one big tribute to the importance of storytelling for humankind.

If I’m honest, I’ve never been a big fan of the branded short films we’ve featured on Short of the Week, but there was something about Saavedra’s film I found instantly likable. At times it does feel like an extended commercial, but that resourceful storyline keeps you constantly engaged and that timeless feel of the visuals is easy to get yourself lost in.

With The Red Stain having debuted at Sundance Film Festival last Friday, Rodrigo is now working on a couple of feature film scripts, including a comedy/thriller and a futuristic dystopian drama.