Beloved Shores

A survey of our country, Italy, through images and music only. From geography and environment to economy and industry, from housing and demography to anthropology and culture. The film displays a domestic atlas of much loved, yet lost, wonders and places. The daily life of people caught in between the glorious past, and the apparent stagnation of the present. In a narrative structure composed solely of images and music, without words and apparently also without a plot, the film returns to the nature of cinema itself by focusing on the expressive powers of photography in motion and montage. It is a Grand Tour for modern times: from the Alps to Sicily, examining scenery, activities, people and stories to reftect on the geographical, social and cultural identity of a nation. From the dizzying height of the sky to the closeness of a portrait, from the exploding energy of an orchestra to the chords of a solo piano, Amate Sponde catches Italy as it looks nowadays. A country, in spite of everything, in continuous transformation, suspended between the old and the new and the increasingly arduous intent to safeguard its own éthos.

(German films)