THOSE WHO STAY

THOSE WHO STAY

Arianna Nacci | Italy 2017 | 19 Min. | OmeU

At 3:36 a.m. in the night between the 23rd and the 24th of August 2016 a 6.0 magnitude earthquake hit central Italy. The epicentre was the small town of Accumoli, Lazio, at just eight kilometres of depth. The towns of Amatrice, Accumoli, Arquata and Pescara del Tronto, amongst many others were razed to the ground. Three hundred ninety-nine people where killed and nearly 10,000 left homeless. Those Who Stay is an ethnographic documentary that depicts the life in the aftermath of the disaster. The director spent three months living in a container in one of the 69 hamlets of Amatrice capturing stories, hopes and everyday life. 

The resulting documentary, through intimate stories and an ethic approach, drives us into the lives of the ones that, despite the difficulties, the trauma and the loss, decided to stay. The abnormality that becomes normality, the feeling of stillness and the strength of the people that have to cope with a torn landscape. Despite the magnitude of the disaster and the vast territory, I have decided to focus on two groups of people: a couple of young horse farmers and a group of old ladies. Arianna decided to juxtapose images from their everyday lives together with frames of the nature that surrounds them. What emerges is a deep portrait of the community, moving within static and projects, and of the resilience that links them all.