Below the Clouds

Director Gianfranco Rosi has always looked at Italy with a loving eye. In the award-winning Sacro GRA (2013), he shows what goes on along the major ring road around Rome; in Fuocoammare (2016), he focused his camera on the inhabitants of the small island of Lampedusa; and in his new film, Below the Clouds, the focus is on Vesuvius, the volcano that artist Jean Cocteau said creates all the clouds. In addition to the volcano, Naples and Pompeii, once swallowed by the volcano, also feature. There is no distinct storyline, no narrative; Rosi mainly observes everyday life, and he does so in beautiful black and white. The poetic result makes it clear that at Vesuvius, the past and present are inextricably intertwined.

We see a team of Japanese archaeologists at Pompeii, while not far away art thieves steal frescoes through secret tunnels. We see fire brigade emergency workers receiving calls from concerned residents after yet another minor earthquake, while elsewhere dock workers have to unload a Ukrainian ship full of grain. And we see much more.