The Match Factory Joins Alice Rohrwacher & JR’s Venice Short ‘An Urban Allegory’

The Match Factory has boarded international sales on An Urban Allegory, the new short film by Alice Rohrwacher and JR, ahead of its world premiere at Venice Film Festival, Out of Competition.

The work marks the second collaboration between Italian filmmaker Rohrwacher (La Chimera, Happy as Lazzaro, The Wonders) and French artist and director JR (Faces Places, Women Are Heroes, Paper and Glue, Tehachapi), following Omelia Contadina which premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2020.

Taking inspiration from Greek Philosopher Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, the film explores what happens if one of the prisoners manages to free themselves from their chains and escape from the cave. An Urban Allegory envisions this scenario through the eyes of Jay, a 7-year-old boy.

The film stars Lyna Khoudri (The French Dispatch, Papicha, The Blessed), Palme d’Or winning director Leos Carax (Annette, Holy Motors, Les Amants du Pont-Neuf) and Naïm El Kaldaoui in his first role.

The Match Factory has a long history with Alice Rohrwacher, having handled sales on her complete directorial debut Corpo Celeste (2011), as well as The Wonders (2014), Happy as Lazzaro (2018), Futura (2021) and last year’s critically acclaimed box office success La Chimera. This also includes the short films Four Roads (2020) and Omelia Contadina (2020).

An Urban Allegory is produced by Ad Vitam Films, in co-production with Social Animals.