A short film with all the Hollywood elements. This cinematic drama with an eleventh-hour problem and a heartwarming ending is a perfect miniature of a big-budget feature. It’s the kind of film that grips you from start to finish and it’s a commercial for Barilla. If long-form branded content can be sometimes “flabby”, this certainly isn’t.

The ten-minute film was created and produced by Italian agency, Alkemy, and director, Xavier Mairesse. It was made for Carbonara Day (yes, there really is one. This year it was on April 6). Beneath the obvious intention of the film (there are some glorious pasta shots and the theme of the healing power of a great meal is impossible to overlook), there are messages about unity, acceptance and charity.

“This film is a tribute, in cinematic form, to pasta, which has always united people and cultures,” stated Alessio Gianni, Barilla’s vice-president of global digital marketing. “In this fourth edition of Carbonara Day we are happy to tell the legend of the birth of the most loved and discussed pasta dish in the world, with a short film. It is a new way of communicating, which combines advertising campaigns with a more authorial language, and thanks to platforms such as YouTube, allows us to reach people even with long content, at the crossroads between advertising and entertainment.”

The film concludes by encouraging everyone to “share a carebonara” and adds a note about Barilla’s pledge to donate 1 million pasta dishes through 2021 to Food for Soul and soup kitchens throughout the world. Food for Soul is a non-profit founded by world-famous chef, Massimo Bottura, which uses food waste and community donations to combat hunger.  

CareBonara: The Origins of Carbonara achieved more than 4.5 views on YouTube in its first week.

Credits:

Agency: Alkemy
Executive Creative Directors: Jan Mattassi & Marco Tironi
Lead Copywriter: Demetrio Chirico 
Senior Art Director: Mauro Breda
Creative Team: Massimo Paternoster, Giulio Frittaion, Christian Leoni, Salvatore Specchia, Yuri Alfieri & Federico Capitani
Strategy Director: Niccolò Rigo
Social Media Strategist: Andrea Biolcatti 
Client Services Director: Federica Busino
Account Director: Edvige Crescibene

Director: Xavier Mairesse
Director of Photography: Emanuele Zarlenga
Executive Producer: Simone Di Mezza Cutillo 
Line Producer: Daniele Esposito
Producer: Chiara Agresta
Assistant Producer: Filippo Giordani

Photographer: Andrea Metafuni
Storyboard & End Credits Animation: Camillo Sancisi 
Editor: Lorenzo Colognati
Assistant Editor: Fabrizio Ferigo
Colourist: Walter Volpatto
Music Supervision, Sound Design & Mix: Jackleg Studio Milan