cinematography
Tommaso Lusena De Sarmiento
editing
Filippo Montemurro
Mauro Rossi
music
Giorgio Giampà
Marta Lucchesini

with
Antonio Alì
Damiano Bevilacqua
Anzhela Brailo
Daniele Castrizio
Stefano Mariottini
Gaia Carlotta Ndoye

producers
Carlo Degli Esposti
Nicola Serra
production
Palomar
with the support of
Regione Calabria – Dipartimento Istruzione
Formazione e Pari Opportunità
Fondazione Calabria Film Commission

Italian press office
REGGI&SPIZZICHINO Communication
Maya Reggi
Raffaella Spizzichino
Carlo Dutto
info@reggiespizzichino.com
www.reggiespizzichino.com

Flesh and Bronze is a documentary that retraces half a century of history, narrating the discovery of the two best-preserved bronze statues in the world, the pair of mysterious warriors who emerged from the sea in front of Riace in 1972, after two thousand years spent underwater. Interviews and exclusive documents, first-hand accounts, and the portrait of a restless present-day are at the heart of this story. The Riace Bronzes represent our past but, like everything lost and found, they also embody our desires for the future, peace and beauty, which mankind has always harbored.

Fabio Mollo
2023 Nata per te
2023 Semidei (doc)
2022 My Soul Summer
2021 Anni da cane
2017 Il padre d’Italia
2015 Vincenzo da Crosia (doc)
2013 Il sud è niente
2010 Domani (in Napoli 24, short)
2008 Giganti (short)
2006 Carmilla (short)
2005 Al buio (short)
2003 Troppo vento (short)

Alessandra Cataleta
2023 Semidei (doc)
2017 Il futuro non me lo ricordo (doc)
2015 Scarti (doc)
2014 The protester (short)
2011 Indovina chi viene a pranzo? (short)
2007 My greatest love (short)
2007 Crush (short)
2004 I Bonavoglia (short)
2003 Dopo tutto (short)

“In Semidei, archive material from the past and original material from our present time are intermingled in an attempt to create a single present lasting 2,500 years and then imagine the future. Indeed, today is the future we most fear – not the past. The Bronzes represent space, hence the places they have passed through since the moment they were created up to their rediscovery in Calabria. It’s a landscape that buckles under their bronze skin and merges with it until they become one: marvelous and strong, complex and fragile at the same time – a thing that needs to be protected. The Bronzes are two brothers, Eteocles and Polynices, who slay each other for the same crown, but they are also saints Cosmas and Damian, patron saints of Riace and its people. […] The Bronzes are all of us who have gazed on them in rapture over the centuries. We reflect on the surface of their metallic skin and see our own reflection – or what we desire for ourselves. This is why they are ‘semi-gods’.” [Fabio Mollo, Alessandra Cataleta]

Fabio Mollo graduated from the University of East London in 2002 and then received a degree in directing at the CSC - Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, where he made a number of shorts, including Al buio (selected for the Venice Film Festival) and Giganti (in competition at the Berlinale, Best Short Film at the Torino Film Festival).  His debut narrative feature in 2013, Il Sud è niente, competed at the Berlinale (Generation section). His first documentary feature, the 2015 film Vincenzo da Crosia, won an award at Torino and was shortlisted for the Silver Ribbons. In 2015-2016, Mollo accompanied director Paolo Sorrentino during the filming of the series The Young Pope and made an HBO and Sky documentary called The Young Pope – a Tale of Filmmaking. Mollo’s second feature film, Il padre d’Italia, came out in 2017, followed by Anni da cane in 2021, which premiered at the Rome Film Festival – Alice nella città. In 2022 he directed My Soul Summer, a musical, also selected for Rome Film Festival – Alice nella città.

Alessandra Cataleta graduated with a degree in modern literature from the Sapienza University of Rome in 2002. On a grant five years later, she attended the Brighton Film School and won the BBC Untold South Contest for her short film about jazz singer Renee Ansell. A writer and director for MTV and RAI, in 2014 Cataleta directed her first documentary, Scarti, which competed at the Festival Sguardi Altrove. In 2016 she made the doc Il futuro non me lo ricordo, Special Mention at the winter edition of the mental health festival Lo Spiraglio. Currently she is wrapping up the filming of her new documentary La vita che mi diedi, a biopic about the legendary puppeteer Anna Cuticchio.