Young American Billy brings a red-stained shirt to the dry-cleaning business of an elderly Italian couple. After he leaves, they spend hours spinning increasingly intricate, improbable yarns about the origin of the stain.

People tempt to fringe when they hear the term branded films, but if done correctly, these can become some of the most fascinating shorts around (See Studies on Hysteria if you haven’t yet). The Red Stain is a film by Rodrigo Saavedra created for the Francis Ford Coppola Winery, so there’s without a doubt, certain expectations to be met when you hear ‘Coppola’ and ‘Film’ in the same sentence. Rodrigo does not disappoint.

The film is about a young American named Billy, who brings a red-stained shirt to the dry-cleaning business of an elderly Italian couple. After he leaves, they spend hours spinning increasingly intricate, improbable yarns about the origin of the stain. This, in turn, leads them to wonder about Billy’s identity. Is he a hot-blooded lover in the midst of an affair? A superspy? A chess-boxing champion? All of these, perhaps? And why did he venture abroad in the first place?