The starting point of Divertimento – The Invisible Circus is a feeling of sadness: that of Misha Capnist, witnessing the slow fading of Gratteri. Perched high in the Madonie Park in northern Sicily, his adopted village has been losing its inhabitants—and with them its culture—since the mid-20th century.
In order to leave a trace, an object of memory, Misha invited Stefano Alaimo, multimedia artist and designer, and Katarina Schröter, actress and filmmaker.

Grounded in observation and attentive listening, the two artists spent two weeks in Gratteri in August 2025, collecting testimonies, sounds and images. The aim of this research was to capture the emotional and intimate resonances that the phenomenon of rural exodus has on the village’s inhabitants.

These few days of observation made it possible to sketch the portrait of a fragmented place, torn between an attachment to tradition and the necessity of adapting to the dynamics of a globalised world. The more than thirty interviews conducted in Gratteri raise a number of compelling questions: our relationship to the Other, to work, to consumption, and to nature.

If these fourteen days in Gratteri had to be summed up in a single word, it would be melancholy. Melancholy is a form of sadness linked to past happiness, to a time now gone. In its negative dimension, it can be understood as a state of brooding or resignation; in its positive sense, it can be seen as a meditation on what constituted that past happiness—extracting its essence and allowing it to live on in the present.

Find here the portraits
drawn and written by Stefano!

Watch here the trailer
for the upcoming film by Katarina!