El enamorado de la luna

El enamorado de la luna is a fiction short film written and directed by Laura Casasnovas, produced by Neus Ribas. This is a story about the power of unexpected encounters and the transformative power of a well-timed conversation.

The plot follows Julia and Julien, two strangers who, over the course of a night in Palma, establish a special connection. Julia, a photographer who has lost inspiration, and Julien, a mime who lives off his street art, meet in a cafe and share a talk that will mark a before and after in their lives. Through looks, silences and words charged with meaning, the short film explores the concept of home, the fear of change, and the ephemeral nature of human relationships.

Features and cinematic approach

The project is distinguished by its commitment to a minimalist narrative, where the weight of the story falls on the atmosphere and subtext rather than the action. It is inspired by references such as Lost in Translation, Before Sunrise and Brief Encounter, placing emphasis on the chemistry between the protagonists and the impact of small moments.

Visually, the short film combines the warmth of the Mediterranean with the melancholy of European cinema, while playing with contrasts between day and night, open spaces and the most secluded corners.The pairing of Julia and Julien, the two protagonists, is reflected in multiple aspects of the short film, both in terms of narrative structure and the topics covered and the technical resources used.

Differentiating Elements

• A protagonist with iconic roots
  Julien embodies the figure of Pierrot, the archetype of the melancholic clown who has inspired generations of artists, from Commedia dell'Arte to the films of Godard and Chaplin, and iconic artists such as David Bowie and Pablo Picasso. Despite this notable influence, it's unusual to find references to Pierrot in current films, much less in short films. In El enamorado de la luna, the character is reinterpreted with a contemporary sensibility.

• A Palma rarely seen in cinema
  We're used to seeing major capitals like New York, Paris, or London on screen, but this short film focuses on a mid-sized city with its own identity and enormous cinematic potential. El enamorado de la luna shows a Palma that has yet to be discovered.

• A local story with a universal appeal
  Despite being created in a very specific context, El enamorado de la luna tells a deeply human story about the search for connection, masks, and the concept of home in all its complexity. For those familiar with Palma, the story will resonate among familiar streets; for those discovering it for the first time, it will be an invitation to look with fresh eyes and let themselves be carried away by its magic. El enamorado de la luna aims to combine local and foreign elements, with an eye toward reaching the widest possible audience, both nationally and internationally.

Strengths

• An entirely Mallorcan team: From the script to the soundtrack, including the entire cast and crew, the short film focuses on local talent, reaffirming the potential of independent cinema in the Balearic Islands.
• A strong artistic component: El enamorado de la luna is a tribute to art in its various forms. Film, photography, theatre, and music are present both in the story and in its visual execution.
• Narrative resources: El enamorado de la luna shows a mise en abyme of sorts between the two main characters, through visual metaphors and symbolism that guide the audience to identify the parallelisms between them.
• Palma as a character: Far from showing only its touristic side, the short film presents a cultural, vibrant, and authentic Palma. The city is not just a setting, but a narrative element that gives body and atmosphere to the story.

Where We're At

El amante de la luna has already taken its first steps: the script is written, the cast is defined, and we've met with sponsors and collaborating organisations who share our enthusiasm and have decided to support the project. We've also applied for several public grants, with the intention of combining institutional funding and collective support.

We are currently in the pre-production phase: fine-tuning artistic, technical, and logistical details with an eye toward filming, which will take place between late October and mid-November 2025. This crowdfunding campaign is a key part of the journey: an invitation for you to be part of the film from the inside, and for us all to make it possible.

With El enamorado de la luna, we are eager to tell a universal story from an intimate and visually powerful approach, claiming the value of the small connections that give meaning to life.

El enamorado de la luna is born from a fleeting but deeply evocative image: a street artist, a mime, removing his makeup in a bar after his performance in Plaça Major, Palma's main square. That moment of transformation—from character to human being—inspired Laura Casasnovas, director and screenwriter of the project, to build a story about ephemeral encounters, about lonely people, about how a single day and a conversation can change our perception of ourselves and others.

The short film reflects on the concepts of masks and home, exploring the duality between the desire for stability and the need for movement. Its main characters, Julia and Julien, represent two sides of the same coin: she's trapped in a life on pause; he's an emotional nomad whose only certainty is uncertainty. Through its dialogue, the film invites us to question our own emotional barriers and the way we relate to others.

This project is aimed at an audience that values stories which are intimate, subtle and filled with symbolism, to those who find beauty in everyday conversations and in silences full of meaning. It is a short film designed for lovers of auteur cinema, for those who enjoy the sensitivity of films like Lost in Translation or Before Sunrise, where not only what is said matters, but what is suggested becomes more relevant.

Besides, El enamorado de la luna is built on solid cultural and artistic foundations, which makes it especially attractive to those interested in theatre, photography and music as forms of expression. In addition to the topics already mentioned, the short film also shows the difficulties of an artist developing his career. With a cinematographic language which catches down to the smallest detail, this project seeks to be not only a story to be told, but also a visual and emotional experience.

Lastly, this short film is also a commitment to local talent, with a team made up mostly of professionals from Mallorca. With it, we'd like to consolidate and give visibility to independent cinema from the Balearic Islands, demonstrating that universal stories can be told from a close and authentic perspective.

The team that is behind this short film, although emerging, accumulates diverse experiences both in the audiovisual field and in other sectors of culture. Find out more about them below:

Laura Casasnovas – screenwriter and director

Laura Casasnovas is a young Mallorcan filmmaker, and this is her second short film as a director. Her first, a micro-short titled Reencuentro, won the Notodofilmfest in 2017 and was named "Short of the Month" by Cinemanía magazine.

Laura holds a double degree in Audiovisual Communication and Journalism, a Master's degree in Philosophy, and is currently pursuing a PhD at the University of Amsterdam. Since June 2022, she has been a member of the board of CineCiutat, an independent cinema in Palma that is part of the Europa Cinemas network. She also dedicates part of her time to music, singing and playing guitar in a band. In short, she lives and breathes culture in all its forms.

Over the last ten years, Laura has participated in other audiovisual projects, such as the short film Pregunta (Toni Sastre, 2021), where she served as director of photography and editor; the feature film Lo que sucede en Cap Vermell (Roberto Pérez Toledo, 2018), where she was assistant director; the music video El Nudo (Maico, 2022), for which she was in charge of direction and script; the short film Teseractus (Xisco Díaz, 2021), where she was assistant director, and the music video Aire Americà (O-Erra, 2019), which she co-wrote.

Neus Ribas – production director

Neus Ribas is a cultural manager and translator with extensive experience in the internationalisation of culture. She has a degree in Translation and Interpretation from the Pompeu Fabra University and has a postgraduate degree in event management from the UOC. After 10 years working in Barcelona in the field of translation, where she specialised in cultural projects, between 2010 and 2020 she worked in the field of public cultural management, specifically in international projection of culture, where she developed projects in different artistic disciplines: Be Balears cycle in New York (2010), organization of activities for the XIV Campus of the Catalan Language (2012), coordination of the Sea Arts (2013) and Sea Music showcases (2014) and Fira B! (2015-2019), among others.

Since 2021, she began her career as a freelancer and combines her two passions, cultural management and translation. As a cultural manager, she is the project manager of the Centre d’Investigació Escènica (C.IN.E.) of Sineu, production manager of the Ciclop Visual Theatre Festival, producer of Suralita and the shows BRAVURA and ZOOM, from Cia Moviments, and La nit just abans dels boscos, by Cia Pau Pascual. As a translator, she has translated different operas for the Teatre Principal de Palma into Catalan and Spanish, she has translated the opera L'Arxiduc, produced by the Balearic Islands Symphony Orchestra, in Spanish and English (English version together with Jonathan Holloway), and in English the theatrical texts Antígones 2077, by Aina de Cos, together with Jonathan Holloway, Les preposicions, by Aina de Cos, and Dama Dictadura, by Lluki Portas.

In the audiovisual field, in 2021 she was part of the short film team Pregunta, directed by Toni Sastre, where she carried out production tasks and was the assistant director. El enamorado de la luna is the first audiovisual project that she has launched independently as a producer registered with the ICAA.

Toni Sastre – leading actor

Born in Mallorca in 1986 to a French mother and a Mallorcan father, Toni Sastre began his connection with the public through gymnastics during his childhood and adolescence. After exploring acrobatics, he found his true passions in dance, music, painting, and nature. He studied landscape design in Madrid, but returned to the island to train in drama at ESADIB, where he began his journey both in theatre and in front of the camera, and in the latter, he found his true calling.

With extensive experience in advertising spots, plays and short films, he became one of the protagonists of the IB3 fiction series Hotel Bellavista. He then starred in the award-winning documentary Behold the Monkey from the British channel Sky Arts, returned to the stage with the musical Grease, and again returned to the cameras to be part of the series Yo Quisiera, by Divinity and Mediaset. Then he returned to IB3 to participate in the documentary Vida i mort d’un arquitecte and fiction Desconeguts. Later he worked in the German production Nachts Baden and the British film Off the Rail. In recent years, Toni Sastre has had roles in Antidisturbios, by Rodrigo Sorogoyen for Movistar+, and in the second season of the German series Der König von Palma.

Within the audiovisual world, he is not only an actor but also produces, writes and directs. Examples to highlight are the film Lo que ocurre en Cap Vermell (Roberto Pérez Toledo), produced and starring Toni Sastre, as well as Chocamos, Voramar and Pregunta, short films by Toni himself.

Polina Nikolaeva – main actress

Polina began her career as a model at the age of 15 as a possible gateway to her true passion, acting. After more than 10 years in fashion and advertising, and at the same time graduating in Economics and later in Architecture and Interior Design, already self-employed in her fields, she decided to move to the capital and finally begin her training as an actress.

She graduated from the Central Film School after two years of training, at the same time she completed a diploma in Performing Arts at the Cristina Rota school and took multiple intensive courses such as Acting on camera, casting and audiovisual languages, with the casting director Flor Limonoff; Acting training, with Belinda Washington; Chekhov intensive, acting on camera and understanding and interpreting a script, with casting director Juan León; Viewpoints Workshop, with Arnolda Noir; Casting, with Roberto Matus; Casting, with Eneko Botana; and Tony Barr and Lesly Kahn Techniques, with Javier Alcina, among others. She continues this ongoing process with coach and director Antonio Raposo.

She has worked in a large number of international advertising productions, as well as small roles in fiction such as Eva y Nicole, directed by Daniel Écija for Antena 3 and Atresplayer, White Lines, directed by Alex Pina for Netflix, and short films such as Feim un cafè?, by director Ernest Riera, or Ironies of success, by Esther & Jonas Productions. Her debut as a protagonist will be in the short film El enamorado de la luna, by writer-director Laura Casanovas, followed by Full-course, written and directed by Portuguese director Cau Costa.

Born in Bulgaria in 1994, Mallorcan since she was 5 years old.

Two Little Rooms – OST

Two Little Rooms was born in 2023 as a collaboration between singer and composer Aina Zanoguera, known for her wide emotional range, and Gori Matas, pianist and composer. Their music moves between jazz, classical music and experimental soundscapes.

Together they create a unique sound that they define as melodic, but break the tenderness with subtle electronics and live sound modulation.

The name Two Little Rooms reflects the origin of the project: the creation, production, recording and mixing in their two small studios located in Mallorca and Hamburg. "It's like a poem open to nature, born from the need to return to a wilder state through art, where you can truly be yourself, both personally and musically, without rules or pretensions," says Aina about Two Little Rooms.

Aina Zanoguera will also appear on camera, performing one of the songs from the soundtrack. This allows the music to become organically woven into the narrative.

The artistic team is completed by Luna Zapata, Marta Obrador, Joan Bestard and Blanca Creus. The technical team is made up of Marcos Callejo, assistant director; Patricia Casasnovas, art and costume director; Xisco Díaz Salamanca, director of photography and FX supervisor; Laura Lliteras, choreographer; Guillermo Martínez Pérez de Rada, casting director; Lucía Millán, sound manager; and Andreu Juan, stills photographer.

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