Documentary Feature
My Soul Is in a Hurry
Directed by 
Giuseppe Contarino
AFIN 2026 Nominee · 2 nominations
- 2026
- 1h 14m
-
Italy - Italian
- G
- Documentary
Stills
12 frames Still in the running. Winner announced at Awards Night, 19 September 2026.
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Credits
Written by
Produced by
Starring
Cinematography
Editing
Music & Sound
- Blindur
Producer
Production Company
- Fa Production Studio
Synopsis
After a diagnosis forces him to confront his own mortality, pastry chef Nicolas Gentile abandons a conventional life to pursue an improbable dream: building a real-life Hobbit shire in rural Italy.
What begins as a personal act of reinvention soon attracts hundreds of people searching for connection, belonging and a different way of living. As Nicolas' dream grows beyond its creator, he finds himself navigating the fragile boundary between vision and reality, solitude and community, freedom and responsibility.
More than a story about fantasy, this is a film about the urgency of living, the need to belong, and the courage to imagine an alternative when time no longer feels infinite.
On the nomination
This nomination means more to me than I can easily put into words. My Soul Is in a Hurry is, at its heart, a film about time - how fragile and fleeting it is, and how deeply it shapes the choices we make and the lives we try to build.
As an independent filmmaker, I know how precious every opportunity to share a film can be. A nomination like this is therefore much more than a recognition: it is a moment in the life of the film that I will carry with me. Knowing that our story has travelled so far and found a place among the nominees at AFIN is something I am deeply grateful for.
I’m incredibly thankful to the AFIN team for giving My Soul Is in a Hurry this opportunity, and for reminding us that, sometimes, the moments we create around a film can be just as meaningful as the film itself.
Director's Statement
When I met Nicolas, I wasn't looking for a film. At first, I was simply intrigued by the contradiction. Here was a father, a baker and a geologist who had decided to build a real Hobbit-inspired shire in the Italian countryside. It sounded eccentric, almost unbelievable. But the more time I spent with him, the less interested I became in the shire itself. What stayed with me was a feeling I recognized. The sense that life was moving too fast. The fear that time might be slipping away unnoticed. The desire to stop postponing the things that truly matter. I realized that Nicolas wasn't trying to recreate a fantasy world. He was trying to answer a question. How do you live when you suddenly become aware that your time is limited? I don't think the film answers that question. In many ways, I'm still searching for the answer myself. What interested me as a filmmaker was staying close to that search, and to the people who found something of themselves in it. Because beyond the costumes, the rituals and the imagination, I believe this is a story about a deeply human need: the need to belong, to be seen, and to feel at home in the time we have.
What makes this one special
- Australian PremiereThe filmmaker tells us this is where it happens
- Award-winning elsewhereEl Ojo Maya
- Nominated in 2 AFIN categoriesBest Documentary Feature · Best Cinematography
Also selected at
1 award across 1 other festival
- WinnerEl Ojo Maya
Recorded by the filmmaker on their entry.
Director's Biography
Giuseppe Contarino Director
Giuseppe Contarino is an Italian filmmaker, screenwriter and producer working between documentary and fiction. His work focuses on moments of rupture, when time, identity or social roles lose stability, privileging observation over explanation and presence over narrative closure. He trained between the National Film and Television School (UK) and the Roma Film Academy, developing a practice grounded in the encounter between production rigor and the unpredictability of real life. Alongside his personal projects, he has collaborated on internationally acclaimed films, including Stranger in Paradise by Guido Hendrikx, presented at IDFA and numerous major festivals. In his directorial debut My Soul Is in a Hurry, Contarino continues his exploration of fragility, community and lived time, shaping a cinema that resists spectacle in favor of honesty and duration.
Trailer
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My Soul Is in a Hurry was an official Nominee for Best Documentary Feature and Best Cinematography at the AFIN International Film Festival 2026, a Top 100 Best Reviewed and IMDb-qualifying festival.
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