Gatto (2027)

Nero is a black street cat who has spent years finding his way through Venice, a city of canals and superstition. Now he is questioning whether he has lived his lives well, but he cannot simply leave his old existence behind: he owes a debt to Rocco, the ruthless boss of Venice’s feline underworld. The obligation puts Nero in a quandary, and the official story sets his personal reckoning against the practical danger of remaining in Rocco’s grasp. His search for a different purpose is not abstract; with his last life at stake, he has little room to keep drifting through the same streets and making the same choices. The maze-like city that Nero knows so well becomes the setting for a decisive change.

Nero is forced into an unexpected friendship with Maja, a local street musician. Her help gives him a chance to look beyond the debt and the mob boss who holds it over him, and may bring him closer to discovering what his life can mean. But the possibility of a new direction comes with immediate stakes: Nero has only his final life left, Rocco remains a threat, and Venice may defeat him before he can make good on that chance. The story’s central tension is whether this unlikely bond can help a cat shaped by years of survival find a truer purpose, while the city and its feline criminal world close in around him.