The Lightness of a Stone

In Malaysia, a man who arrived by boat on a deserted beach explores the rocks and shallows of the sea. He collects stones and shells, which will soon be packed up during a move and sent elsewhere. Will they keep their mysterious beauty when transported to another place? “A friend of mine used to claim that lightness is the keyword for everything. Once he told me about his obsession with stones and about his lonely explorations of the Malaysian islands, where he could find beautiful rocks and amazing formations. I followed him with my camera. Later, I also filmed his return to Italy, after ten years living in Asia” (VT). The filmmaker’s gaze, submerged in the luminosity of nature, follows the movements of bodies and caresses the surface of things. The organic and inorganic ignore each other. In this environment, men are foreign matter. Elsewhere, the opposite will apply. A meditative film that finds its expression in the polymorphous structure of mineral matter; imbued with metaphysical concepts, the spirit soars. Luciano Barisone