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Disneyland Paris, France. A chilling sequence of five photographs shows a giant stuffed Pluto setting himself on fire with a bottle of petrol. Jacques Vian is the photographer, a reporter for «Le Monde», who is experiencing the first symptoms of Parkinson’s. Under the costume is Matteo Danza, a Ph.D. student in ethology. Jacques is drawn to Matteo’s act and becomes immersed in his story, like an explorer. He will put together a long and emotional reportage in which he becomes the narrator of Mattia’s utopia, assisting him in his sacrifice, aware of the fact that men are animals in captivity in an artificial nature, persuaded that to become men once again, it is necessary to «give a different priority to our beliefs and correct our aim».


Raffaele Riba was born in Cuneo in 1983. He is among the City Writers and teaches in the Holden School. He is also the author of Abbi pure paura (Loescher, 2015) and La custodia dei cieli profondi (The deep-sky guardian, 66thand2nd, 2018).

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