Daniel Warwick directs Ritornerai

A new short film comes from award-winning director Daniel Warwick, who is repped for commercials in North America and the UK by O Positive.

Ritornerai, Italian for “you will return”, premiere on Vimeo as a Staff Pick. Known for his big and bonkers, epic visual storytelling, Warwick’s film, albeit more meditative than some of his other work, does not disappoint. It is a wholly original and offbeat story with an exquisite scenic backdrop that leaves plenty of room for interpretation. 

“Three days before an actual commercial shoot, my producer Jakob Rühle and I realised that we had a camera, a location, an actor, a pair of Lederhosen and a few beers to brainstorm,” Warwick said. “Suddenly my producer yelled ‘Objectophelia’ and the idea was born.”

Filmed in the Italian Dolomites, Ritornerai features a man in Lederhosen who appears from behind a bush and enters a Grand Hotel where he begins to touch the beautiful haptics and textures of the whole place. Seemingly overtaken by objectophilia, we observe him enjoying the sensory experience deeply and emotionally. He enters the big ballroom and sits by the piano where he utters the film’s only line, "Ritornerai." He approaches a giant painting of a landscape and eventually we discover that he is actually in the painting. 

“Ritornerai has inspired many different interpretations,” Warwick related. “People let their minds wander a bit. Love it or hate it, I really like that it doesn’t want anything from you. For that reason, maybe it’s a little more artful because people can take away whatever they want.”