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ONCE UPON A TIME IN ALMERIA: DJANGO BEGINS

  •  Based on a true story

THE APOCALYPSE SET :
The Cold War meets the Wild West

Arriving Soon...

SPAIN, JANUARY 17, 1966.

The Nuclear Nightmare

A mid-air collision during the U.S. Air Force’s Operation Chrome Dome tears open the skies over Palomares, unleashing a radioactive apocalypse. Four hydrogen bombs, each seventy times more devastating than Hiroshima, crash onto Spain’s southern coast, triggering the largest nuclear cleanup in history.

Cinema Under Siege

As Washington floods the region with troops to contain a silent catastrophe, the top-secret mission stumbles upon the unthinkable: in the nearby Almería desert, a Spaghetti Western set is in full swing, blissfully unaware of the end of the world.

The Actor at the Center of the Catastrophe

History recorded the bombs and the cleanup, yet never knew of the actor left alone at the epicenter of the disaster, breathing in plutonium-laced dust: Anthony Steffen, the legendary pistolero trapped between cinematic myth and the brutal reality of the Cold War.

A Family Secret

This is the story of the man reborn at the heart of that nightmare.
And of the secret my family has kept for sixty years.

РManuel de Teff̩

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Manuel de Teffé

Writer & Director | A Western Legacy

Born in Rome, Manuel de Teffé stands at the crossroads of cinema, literature, and social impact. As the son of Antonio de Teffé, stage name Anthony Steffen — the legendary Italian Western star who set a world record with 27 leading roles in the genre —, he carries a direct link to the mythology of the frontier, reimagining it through a contemporary lens.

His creative vision combines aesthetic rigor, rooted in the Roman theatrical tradition, with a deeply human approach to storytelling. With an international career spanning music videos, commercials, documentaries, and global campaigns for major non-profit organizations, he has held key creative roles across the media industry — from television production at Lux Vide to artistic direction for Média-Participations, where his project CECILIA reached over two million viewers.

Today, Manuel balances creative production with teaching film at the university level. Following the publication of his debut novel C’era una volta a Roma, he is collaborating with SAJE Distribution in Paris on two feature film projects.

With Once Upon a Time in Almería – Django Begins, Manuel embarks on his most personal project yet: a journey that weaves together private family archives and declassified military documents to reveal a long-buried secret entrusted to him by his father — the untold account of how the 1966 Palomares nuclear accident brought the film Anthony Steffen was shooting in the Spanish desert to a sudden halt.

Blending family memory, hidden Cold War history, and the mythic roots of the Western, Manuel honors his cinematic legacy while pushing it into bold, uncharted territory.

The Acclaimed Debut: C’era una Volta a Roma

(Once Upon a Time in Rome)

Rome, 1965. As the Dolce Vita era enters its final glittering act and the first anti-Vietnam War protests stir in the streets, Sergio Leone’s A Fistful of Dollars explodes onto screens and ignites the global phenomenon of the Spaghetti Western.

In the midst of this cinematic gold rush, an ambitious public relations manager at the Rome Hilton is determined to pull her reluctant fiancé into the frenzy. C’era una volta a Roma follows an unlikely quartet on a madcap quest to break into the booming film industry: a faded aristocratic Shakespearean actor, a radical Russian acting guru, a visionary Jewish documentarian, and an elderly breadstick entrepreneur with one final, glorious dream — to turn his secret manuscript into the next big hit: No Dollars for Django

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Awards & Recognition

The cinematic and literary work of Manuel de Teffé has received widespread European recognition. His creative vision has been honored with the Bond Street Award in London (2023), the Premio Donne d’Amore in Venice (2024), the Premio Letterario La Ginestra Firenze (2025), the Sergio Leone Award (2025), and the Matrice Leone Award (2025). Most recently, the Dante Alighieri Society of Düsseldorf honored him with the 2026 Italofonia Award for the cross-border cultural impact of his novel, cementing his reputation as a prominent voice in contemporary storytelling.

Critics & Editorial Reviews

What leading publications say about the work and literary power of Manuel de Teffé.

A rare, life-altering masterpiece that now stands alongside Dostoevsky and Buzzati as one of the three books of my lifetime. Once Upon a Time in Rome is an organic, breathtaking tapestry of destiny — a manual on literary art and an acting masterclass wrapped in a profound journey of the human spirit. Manuel de Teffé captures the soul of an era, revealing that the true power of the hero — the lonely knight, the misunderstood icon — lies not in his Colt, but in his unwavering pursuit of beauty. As the book perfectly states: 'We are cinema. We change reality by suggesting another.' This is a vital, essential read: a gift of freedom and a testament to the fact that, when armed with art and discipline, we can still fight the injustice that surrounds us. A work of immense emotional depth that belongs in every library.
Svetlana Svilenova Literary Professor
Manuel de Teffé delivers a compelling and fluid narrative that masterfully blurs the lines between reality and cinematic myth. The novel centers on the transformation of Antonio de Teffé into Anthony Steffen, an iconic figure of the Spaghetti Western genre. At its core, the book is a profound exercise in metafiction; as the author Steffen's son literally and narratively recreates his father, he assumes the unique role of becoming "father to his father." Framed by a mysterious gift from boxing legend Rocky Marciano, the story serves as a captivating initiation into the art of acting and the vibrant legacy of Cinecittà. It is an enchanting read that invites the audience to abandon themselves to a story that feels like the ultimate product of pure narrative imagination.
GIUSEPPE MANFRIDI Writer / Playwright
A narrative work that brings back the atmosphere of a unique era: Rome in the mid-sixties, caught between the excitement of La Dolce Vita and the new fever of the Spaghetti Western. Manuel de Teffé blends real and fictional characters into an inventive phantasmagoria, with the extraordinary ability to transfigure reality into a shared collective imagination. A singular coming-of-age novel of an already mature man, gifting us a vivid portrait of an era that deeply marked the country.
GIUSEPPE COSTIGLIOLA Journalist
The novel’s style is nothing short of surprising. It moves with a Calvino-esque lightness — shifting from warm, aching nostalgia to a playful irony that can turn razor-sharp when it is time to settle the score with the villain of the hour. C’era una volta a Roma pulses with that same raw energy we remember from the films of the '60s and '70s — those wild, lethal adventures that took the world by storm. Manuel de Teffé is a revelation; he has captured that old magic, and more than fifty years later, he is poised to pull off the exact same masterpiece.
GIANNI GARKO Actor
Reading Once Upon a Time in Rome is like listening to an Ella Fitzgerald improvisation: dazzling, ever-changing, and deeply soulful. It brings back a vanished world, projecting it onto the walls of our present as if we were sitting in a village square on a summer night. This is not just a novel; it is the dimension of a dream — the kind that does not take you away from reality, but gives you the courage, and perhaps the madness, to change it.
CRISTINA CHINAGLIA Actress
The dusty myths of the Spaghetti Western were not just celluloid illusions; they were a mirror of our own search for meaning. Like a modern-day Virgil, the author leads us through this intricate labyrinth of life — a Dantesque journey where every gunshot echoes with nostalgia, and every scene is a prayer in disguise.
MAURO GERMANI Writer, Essayist, Poet
One of the most beautiful books I have ever read. Unique. Manuel de Teffé’s writing is so immersive that the characters do not just appear — they breathe; you can hear their voices, sense their thoughts, and fall in love with their very souls. At its heart is a legendary love story: a great man, Antonio (Anthony Steffen), and his great woman, Antonella. But what truly strikes the reader is the dignity the author grants to every single person in this world — from the protagonists to the smallest extras. It is a work that is surprising, funny, and deeply moving; it fills you with hope, reminding us that something grandiose can still happen in our own lives. I did not want it to end. It is a masterpiece that, in my heart, stands on equal footing with Dostoevsky’s The Idiot and Paul Auster’s Moon Palace. This book should be read in every school to inspire the next generation to rediscover their own talent and believe in themselves.
Beatrice Fazi Actress
C’era una volta a Roma is so much more than it promises: it is historical, educational, philosophical, and comedic — but above all, it is a beacon of hope for the future. Drawing from the context of the '60s — a period that feels undeniably relevant today — the book tells the story, the life, and the dreams not just of its characters, but of every single one of us. It acts as an interactive map to be completed, dismantled, and reassembled. And the author, like a modern Virgil, takes us by the hand — generous and never overbearing — guiding us through an intricate network of wadis. It unfolds into an introspective, Dantesque journey in search of beauty.
SARA CELESTE Media Expert

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Once Upon a Time in Almeria…
4 hydrogen bombs. 1 Western set. 72 hours to shoot the film that would haunt the Cold War.

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Django Begins

Based on a true story

Manuel de Teffé

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