Virgin Territory

Set in Tuscany during the Black Death, Virgin Territory follows a group of young Florentines who escape the plague by retreating to the countryside, where their time is filled with romance, quarrels and comic misadventures rather than storytelling. At the centre of events is Lorenzo, a young man who hides from the vengeful nobleman Gerbino by posing as a gardener in a convent, and Pampinea, a wealthy merchant's daughter left alone by the epidemic and pressed by Gerbino to marry him for her fortune. A chance encounter draws the two together and gives Lorenzo a new purpose.

The film is a loose, freewheeling adaptation of Boccaccio's Decameron, directed and written by David Leland. It followed his 2003 concert documentary Concert for George, making it the second feature in his directing career as listed here. Hayden Christensen and Mischa Barton lead the cast as Lorenzo and Pampinea, with Tim Roth as the scheming Gerbino, Matthew Rhys as Count Dzerzhinsky, and Rosalind Halstead and Kate Groombridge among the companions. Dino De Laurentiis, Tarak Ben Ammar and Martha De Laurentiis produced.

It was released in December 2007 and cost around 38 million dollars to make, but took only about 5 million dollars worldwide, a poor return on that investment. Audiences rate it modestly: on IMDb it holds 4.7 out of 10 from roughly 10,000 votes, and on TMDB it sits at 5 out of 10 from around 387 votes.