The Butterfly?s Dream is the story of Massimo, a boy who doesn?t speak. At age 14, he has renounced normal language. In reality Massimo, who at the time in the story is just a bit over 20, is by no means mute: he speaks only when acting. He has a splendid voice, but outside the theater he lives in and expresses himself with silence. One day a director seems him play the Prince of Homburg, remaining fascinated by his performance. The director wants to offer Massimo a big role. Not able to get a response he turns to Massimo?s father, university professor and eminent archeologist, who informs the director of his son?s choice and even offers disappointment in love as a possible explanation. The director changes his mind: now he wants to create a play about Massimo, constructing a huge character to be played by Massimo himself. He asks Massimo?s mother to write the script. Although at first hesitant, she later accepts. Massimo, even though interpreting himself, is loath to participate in the anecdotal-realistic, autobiographical experience, as if the character who acts were always someone other than the one who vowed silence. All of the characters in The Butterfly?s Dream tend in different ways to make Massimo speak to make him normal and bring him back to the universally understood equality of spoken language. The “persecution” by normal people explodes at the end of the film in a terrible earthquake on the island of Crete, with the entire family reunited around the father under his archeological tent. However, everyone survives the terrible earthquake, as if it were a violent crisis of folly that in its passing opens a gateway to hope… a passageway to change.