The Days Off Movie News, Cast & Updates

The internet that shaped the formative years of many millennials and Gen Xers - the one of dial-up sounds, geocities pages, and niche message boards - serves as the wistful inspiration behind The Days Off, the new sci-fi drama set to premiere at the Locarno Film Festival. Director Lucila Mariani describes the film, which she also wrote, as a “love letter to that internet that no longer quite exists,” a nostalgic nod to the digital spaces that were once personal, quirky, and far removed from today’s algorithm-driven feeds.

The film centers on 12-year-old Bego, played by Antonia Robolini, who finds herself adrift during an interminable summer break. With a solar eclipse looming on the horizon, Bego struggles to carve out a place for herself both within her own family and among the girls her age. The setting is a near-future that feels close enough to our present to be unsettling, yet the emotional core is timeless: the ache of adolescence, the search for identity, and the strange comfort found in the forgotten corners of the web.

Mariani’s film arrives at Locarno with an exclusive new trailer, released ahead of its official debut on August 7. The project marks a distinct genre blend, weaving science fiction elements into a domestic drama that runs a concise 84 minutes. The cast includes Laura Paredes as Romina, Luiza Quinteiro as REN__, Guillermo Berthold as Gonzalo, Amanda Minujín as Male, Gaia Garibaldi as Flor, Bruna Sigal as Sofi, and Rosa Scarvaci as Cande.

In the trailer, glimpses of Bego’s world suggest a tactile, analog feel - sun-bleached streets, the quiet tension of a household in flux - juxtaposed with images of glowing screens and fragmented digital interfaces. It’s a visual language that hints at Mariani’s central preoccupation: how the online spaces we once inhabited have faded, like a worn photograph, leaving only traces in our memory.

A Director’s Personal Connection to the Digital Past

For Mariani, the film is deeply autobiographical in spirit if not in literal fact. She grew up during an era when the internet felt like a frontier - unpolished, experimental, and full of possibility. That version of the web was not curated or commercialized; it was built by users who left behind digital diaries, amateur forums, and early social networks that felt like secret clubs. The Days Off mourns that lost landscape while also questioning what we’ve exchanged for the convenience of today’s platforms.

The director’s approach to the material is intimate rather than didactic. Rather than lecturing on the dangers of modern connectivity, Mariani lets the story breathe through Bego’s perspective. The eclipse is not merely a plot device but a metaphor for the temporary darkness that descends when childhood certainty begins to crack. It’s a moment of cosmic alignment that mirrors the internal shift Bego undergoes as she begins to understand her family’s fractures and her own emerging sense of self.

A Youthful Ensemble Anchored by a Breakout Performance

At the heart of the film is Robolini’s portrayal of Bego, a role that demands a balance of quiet observation and simmering frustration. The young actor carries the narrative with a naturalistic ease, supported by a seasoned ensemble that grounds the story in believable emotional stakes. Paredes, known for her work in Argentine cinema, brings a grittier realism to Romina, while the younger cast members - Garibaldi, Sigal, and Scarvaci - portray the peer dynamics that can feel both exhilarating and cruel at that age.

The science fiction elements are subtle, more atmospheric than overt. Mariani uses the near-future setting to amplify the sense of displacement, but she never lets the speculative trappings overwhelm the human drama. The result is a film that feels both timely and out of time, much like the internet it pays tribute to.

An Exclusive Look Ahead of the Festival Premiere

Hollywood Buzz News was granted an exclusive first look at the trailer, which will be screened during the festival’s official programming. The footage opens with Bego wandering through a sunlit courtyard, the air heavy with the inertia of a long vacation. Her voiceover, delivered in a flat, weary tone, speaks of counting down the days until school returns - only for the frame to cut to a dimly lit bedroom where a computer monitor flickers to life.

What follows is a montage of digital detritus: loading bars, pixelated avatars, chat windows with unanswered questions. It’s a visual elegy for a time when being online meant being alone together in a way that feels alien now. The trailer closes with a shot of Bego staring at a screen that shows only static, a final nod to the ephemeral nature of connection.

The Days Off is poised to be one of the more talked-about titles at Locarno this year, not merely for its nostalgic ache but for its refusal to sentimentalize the past. Mariani is not arguing that the old internet was better - only that it was different, and that difference shaped a generation. For those who remember the hum of a modem or the thrill of a stranger’s comment on a fledgling blog, the film will feel like a familiar ghost. For younger viewers, it may serve as a window into a world that has all but vanished.

The film holds a TMDb rating of 0/10 as of yet, with the sole review likely pending the festival debut. That number, of course, will change once audiences weigh in. For now, The Days Off stands as a quiet, resonant invitation to remember what we had - and to wonder what we’ve lost.

Source: Hollywood Reporter