Filmmaker Statement

I was born on the banks of a small village shrouded in fog and silence—one of those places where you grow up hearing made-up stories passed down orally, tales of monsters, witches, and men with impossibly long arms. These figures spring from a folklore shaped by the mist and the river itself. The Po River has always carried a uniquely dark imagery for Italy: a murky, immense, and dangerous body of water that keeps people at a distance—or so it seems. I chose to revisit these stories with a more mature perspective. I spent the entire summer exploring the vulnerabilities of the area and building connections with those who live along the Po’s banks, often on large barges, in precarious sanitary conditions. This people gives to me the final inspiration for this film : one of the actors in the short film had lived in one of these floating structures for over twenty years, until a major flood swept his home away.