The idea
A disputed memoir draws an Italian researcher and an Oxford scholar into the lives of two Sicilian friends. Their journey through Renaissance Italy may hold a story hidden behind the name Shakespeare.
OFFSIDE brings friendship, exile, theatre and the energy of a shared game into a historical mystery. Across two periods, the search for an answer becomes a struggle over who has the right to tell the story.
Michelangelo Florio flees religious persecution with his closest friend, Tobia, an autistic boy with his own unexpected and often funny way of seeing the world and the people around him. Their friendship carries them through exile, and Tobia’s voice narrates their journey.
Two friends. A world to cross.
Leonardo Flori and Professor Elizabeth Ward examine Tobia’s contested testimony. As access to the memoir comes under pressure, the need to protect it becomes as urgent as the need to understand it.
One testimony. An unresolved identity.
The creative vision
Tobia is Michelangelo’s closest friend and the film’s narrator. An autistic boy with a perspective all his own, he finds humour in everyday encounters and in the contradictions of the people they meet. His observations, jokes and occasional mistakes become part of Michelangelo’s creative education. His older voice tells their story.
Tobia tells the story in his own voice. His memories hold the friendship, the laughter and the people behind a name that may become a legend.
Theatre and Florentine calcio share the force of a crowd. The project explores performance, belonging and the desire to take part.
Warmth, smoke and the worn textures of Renaissance Italy meet the rain of England and the cool stillness of contemporary archives.
A thread through history
A 1580 printed work on Florentine calcio offers a tangible connection to the world that inspires OFFSIDE. The spectacle of the game becomes a meeting point for friendship, imagination and belonging.
This historical title page is distinct from Tobia’s fictional memoir at the heart of the story.
A work of fiction inspired by historical questions. The proposed Shakespeare connection remains a mystery within the story; the sporting origin legend is a deliberate invention.
Florence & England · Historical dates
Florentine calcio was played centuries before football and rugby acquired their modern codes in England. These dates distinguish documented events, published rules and an origin legend: each tells a different part of the story.
Documented match
A match in Piazza Santa Croce defied the troops besieging the city. It is a famous historical milestone, not the invention date of Florentine calcio: the game was already an established tradition.
Source: Museo FerruccianoPublished treatise
Giovanni de’ Bardi’s Discorso sopra il giuoco del calcio fiorentino is published by Giunti in Florence, describing the game and its rules. Its title page appears above: a surviving source from the world that inspires OFFSIDE.
Source: 1580 edition · Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze / Google BooksOrigin legend
Tradition associates this year with Webb Ellis running with the ball. The account emerged decades later; it does not establish a single moment when rugby was invented.
Source: World Rugby Museum · Webb EllisWritten rules
Pupils at Rugby School compile its first written football rules. This is a documented codification of the game from which modern rugby developed.
Source: World Rugby Museum · First rulesAssociation & codification
The Football Association is founded on 26 October 1863. Its rules, agreed that year, establish association football as a distinct code. This marks modern football’s codification, not the first ball game played in England.
Source: The Football Association · HistoryUnion laws
The Rugby Football Union produces its first laws for the adult game, a further step in rugby’s development beyond the school.
Source: World Rugby Museum · Union lawsFlorentine calcio’s documented history precedes the modern English codes. Chronology alone does not establish that football or rugby descended directly from it. OFFSIDE draws on this historical landscape to invite curiosity, comparison and further research.
Shakespeare, Italy & the journey
Drawing on Aaron Rutigliano’s research and creative interpretation, OFFSIDE imagines two friends travelling from Messina towards England. The places below suggest a possible route through the worlds of Shakespeare’s plays. The journey belongs to the film’s hypothesis; the settings, dates and literary sources are open to examination.
| Place | Play / event | Date & literary connection |
|---|---|---|
| Messina · Sicily | Much Ado About Nothing | c. 1598–1599. Set in Messina; the Hero–Claudio story has a precedent in Bandello’s 1554 novella. RSC · Dates & sources |
| Florence | All’s Well That Ends WellPartly set in Florence | c. 1601–1605; dating debated. Boccaccio’s Decameron, through William Painter’s Palace of Pleasure. Folger · Dates & sources |
| Padua | The Taming of the ShrewMain story set in Padua | c. 1590–1591. The Bianca subplot draws on Gascoigne’s Supposes (1566), adapted from Ariosto’s I Suppositi. RSC · Dates & sources |
| Venice | The Merchant of VeniceVenice and fictional Belmont | c. 1596–1597. A principal source is Ser Giovanni Fiorentino’s Il Pecorone, first printed in 1558. RSC · Dates & sources |
| Verona | Romeo and JulietVerona, with scenes in Mantua | c. 1595–1596. Arthur Brooke’s 1562 poem is the immediate source, following earlier Italian and French versions. RSC · Dates & sources |
| London · England | A documented theatrical career | 1592. Robert Greene’s pamphlet places Shakespeare in London’s theatrical world. It does not document a preceding journey from Italy. RSC · Life & times |
These literary connections provide evidence of Italian influence. A play’s setting does not establish where it was written or prove that its author visited it. The proposed route is geographical, not the order in which the plays were composed.
The project
In development
OFFSIDE is a feature film project created by Aaron Rutigliano. The film has not yet been produced.
The story and its visual direction are being developed for the screen. The artwork on this site presents the intended atmosphere of the project.
Production & creative enquiries
The synopsis, pitch deck and project bible are ready and available upon request.
Request project materials aaronrutigliano@icloud.com