Docs: Below The Clouds

Tourists roam the busy alleys of Naples, carabinieri catch grave robbers, archaeologists excavate an ancient Roman villa, firefighters investigate clandestine tunnels: in the shadow of the volcano Vesuvius, it is never calm, as documentary filmmaker Gianfranco Rosi shows. In his latest film Below the Clouds, Rosi explores both the above and underground world in the area between Vesuvius and the Gulf of Naples. Despite the bustle and cheerfulness of their city, Neapolitans always live with the awareness that Vesuvius could erupt; the last eruption occurred about eighty years ago.

With beautiful black-and-white cinematography – Rosi himself served as director of photography – the director connects various stories that seem to be fed by a sense of impending doom, as if the world of three million Italians could collapse at any moment due to natural forces. Still, Below the Clouds is also a warm-blooded homage to the inhabitants and passersby of eternal Naples.