Plateau Pictures Presents the Extraordinary Epic Film, Beneath the Cristo, Based on the Best-Selling Novel

Burbank, CA, October 09, 2010 --(PR.com)-- Plateau Pictures presents the first movie of a trilogy, Beneath the Cristo. Based on Romeo Risica’s extraordinary novel, Beneath the Cristo, has been met and realized by Italian director Plateau Pictures, Mario M. Milano. The movie concerns a desperate and hunted protagonist, Dwayne Love who navigates a mostly internal landscape fraught with demons of his own making, and a priest locked in a crisis of faith who becomes drawn into Dwayne’s struggle by his own need for atonement. www.beneaththecristo.com

The shifting timeline unfolds over what begins as a fractured series of dreams. Dwayne lays dying in a hospital, badly burned, recalling only vague fragments of what brought him here. Together he and the priest unlock a reality far more unlikely than the visions that haunt him. Betrayal and desperation play out against an intricate backdrop of dream and memory, as crimes, real and imagined are brought to bear.

Milano maintains a complex logical core in the face of ever-shifting dream layers, and the multi-faceted narrative flows through fantasy, flashback, and the interiors of a collapsing psyche. While Dwayne’s demons may inhabit his inner realms, his predicament is quite real and events play out like a fast-paced Hollywood noir.

Translating this rich, complex arrangement of colliding forces and fragmented realities is the kind of challenge that drives filmmakers like Milano to redefine their boundaries and re-imagine their perspectives. Indeed, the filmmakers have expanded the author’s universe in profound new ways. Yet, Risica’s original vision is wonderfully intact.

This is a globe-spanning film with an intricate plot unfolding over an array of locations and expansive scenery. The story travels from the glittery hills of LA, through the dark alleys of Prague, and ultimately to a doomed freighter bound for Rio de Janeiro. Dwayne’s harrowing escape becomes a search for a fabled relic, a dagger with transcendent significance. In the hands of Milano, this quest becomes a taut, winding descent into the miasma of guilt, paranoia, and unchangeable fates presented in the novel.

Contemplative yet visceral, the film runs the gauntlet with an uncompromising style and cohesion that questions notions of reality, remembrance and identity. As the novel marked Risica’s arrival as a powerful literary force, this film signals the emergence of the innovative new voice of director, Mario M. Milano. For more information, visit www.plateaupictures.com

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