THE GARDEN OF DELIGHT

Short Talk with Simone Spampinato (director)

BEST SHORT DOCUMENTARY FILM Category

22nd IN THE PALACE International Short Film Festival 2025

Italy, Documentary, Italian, 00:17:00, 2024

Synopsis: In a culinary school, some student chefs are training with the hope of one day working in a renowned Michelin-starred restaurant, "The Garden of Delights," a career destination where each of them projects their own hopes and desires. Today is the day of the final selections, and the preparation of each recipe will be the beginning of an introspective journey into their family memories, emotions, and cultural origins. 

Biography: Simone Spampinato (Rome, 1995) is an Italian filmmaker. After studying cinema at RUFA Rome University of Fine Arts, he wrote and directed short films and documentaries. In 2016, he co-founded Jumping Flea, a film production company. In 2021, he co-directed "Fort Apache" (2021), a documentary selected at Shanghai International Film Festival and RIFF Rome Independent Film Festival. In 2022, he was involved as assistant director, co-author, and executive producer in the documentary "Come una vera coppia", directed by Christian Angeli.

Simone Spampinato, director

Toma Manov: Simone, in the film we see not just the food but the craft, the discipline, the detail of cooking. Is there a performative aspect to it, or is that discipline something truly present in kitchens, even in this context?

Simone Spampinato: Well, this project sits somewhere between documentary and fiction. It began as a workshop that was both about cooking and about theater. We’ve been collaborating with this association, it's a theater company that works with inmates, for about four years now. Each year, they choose a theme to work on with the inmates, and last year, the theme was food.

They started with a small workshop, and it became clear that food was a really powerful topic, because for many of the inmates, it brought back memories. It became a way to escape through those memories. So yes, the kitchen setup in the film was staged, but the emotional truths behind it were very real. We quickly realized that the dynamics of a professional kitchen weren’t so far removed from the rigid structure of life inside prison. That metaphor guided us. There was a basic script, yes, but each recipe, each line, was partly improvised by the inmates. In the editing, we tried to weave it all together.

Toma Manov: What was it like working with inmates on this project?

Simone Spampinato: This wasn’t my first time working with them, but it was the first time I’d actually gone inside a prison. The theater company we collaborate with usually works with former inmates, so this experience was very different. As a filmmaker, it was fascinating, but also quite emotional. Everyone inside, both the inmates and the prison guards, were such strong characters.

Filming inside a prison is like putting on a pair of incredibly powerful lenses. Everything is heightened. Outside, something small might go unnoticed, but inside, every ingredient, every gesture, carried weight. You could really feel the emotional charge behind what they were doing. And of course, for the inmates, it was something special. They don’t usually have access to the prison kitchen, this was only allowed for the film shoot. So the chance to cook, to create, to be on camera, that was something they were really excited about.

Toma Manov: And you mentioned that the script was a collaborative effort?

Simone Spampinato: Yes, it was written in collaboration with the inmates. We had the basic idea, a fictional culinary competition, but everything else came from them. The people you see in the film, including the main chef, are inmates. So we started with fiction, and then moved toward documentary, though maybe it’s better to say we used fiction to reveal something true. It’s rooted in their reality, their stories. So yes, it’s fiction, but at the same time… it’s not.

Interviewer: Toma Manov

Editor: Martin Kudlac