A teacher’s attempt to help Matteo puts him in conflict with a community attached to the boy’s ability.
The residents of Remis have a weekly ritual: they embrace Matteo, a fifteen-year-old whose touch can remove their suffering. In The Holy Boy, that ability places the apparent happiness of an entire village around a single young person. Shudder’s official synopsis and production details.
Sergio arrives there as a teacher carrying difficulties from his own past. He learns that the community’s attachment to Matteo includes something more troubling than gratitude. When Sergio tries to rescue him, the villagers turn against the intervention.
The premise creates a conflict between what the group receives and what happens to the person providing it. Matteo’s supernatural ability is the condition that sustains the village’s arrangement; Sergio’s arrival threatens to interrupt it.
Paolo Strippoli directs the film, also titled La valle dei sorrisi. Michele Riondino and Giulio Feltri star. Shudder’s official materials identify it as Strippoli’s third feature, following A Classic Horror Story, co-directed with Roberto De Feo, and Piove. Shudder’s official synopsis and production details.