Through the Lens

Sinossi:

“Through the Lens” means through the microscope lens, but also through the lentil, Lens culinaris. The double meaning becomes the dual intention of telling a millenary tradition preserved in the hands and memory of elderly peasants on the small volcanic islands gravitating around Sicily. Aeolian Islands, Ustica, Pantelleria, Linosa, although distant overseas, join in the same way around the “threshing floor” at the time of the “spagghiata”, each with its specificity matured over time.
Through the mosaic of “talking heads” of the islanders over the age of seventy, the artisanal production cycle of lentil is reconstructed, characterized by seasonal appointments, meteorological unexpected events, animal interventions, inter-family collaborations. A long and exhausting process that clashes with modern commercial rhythms and in contrast with the advanced age of the last connoisseurs of the trade. The wealth of gestures and biodiversity remains in the hands of the new generation, risking to let this treasure be forgotten.