Pompei: Below the Clouds - Director Gianfranco Rosi

Between Mount Vesuvius and the Gulf of Naples, the ground shakes periodically and the fumaroles of the Phlegraean Fields taint the air. From the traces of history, memories of the subterranean world, and the concerns of the present, in black and white, a lesser-known Naples emerges and fills with voices, with lives. Below the clouds lies a territory crisscrossed by locals, worshippers, tourists, and archaeologists excavating a past that in museums will give new life and meaning to statues, fragments, and ruins. The train that rings Vesuvius makes its rounds as racehorses train along the shore. A teacher runs a makeshift afterschool for children and adolescents. Firemen in their command center calm the fears of the locals who call in, law enforcement tracks down tomb robbers, while in the port of Torre Annunziata, Syrian tankers unload Ukrainian grain. The land that skirts the gulf is a vast time machine.

About the filmmaker – Gianfranco Rosi, born in Asmara, Eritrea, graduated from the New York University Film School. In India, he makes Boatman, about a boatman on the Ganges, presented at Sundance, Locarno and Toronto. In California he shoots Below Sea Level, about a community of homeless people, and wins the Orizzonti award at the Venice Film Festival. The next film is El Sicario ‐ Room 164, about a killer for Mexican cartels, which wins the Fipresci Prize at the Venice Film Festival. With Sacro Gra for the first time a documentary wins the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. With Fuocoammare he wins the Golden Bear in Berlin, the European Film Academy award and other international prizes, and is nominated for an Oscar. Notturno, shot in the Middle East, in competition at the Venice Film Festival, was shortlisted for the Oscars.