ELEMENTAL

As the human sphere of this world boils up in growing turmoil the world's foundational elements - water, air, fire, land - acquire a new, powerful possible meaningor humans. The growing human turbulence produces a deafening noise, often times a cacophony of violence, fears, dissonance, detachment from reality, ideas pushed to their most extreme and grotesque. It is not surprising that many among humans feel dazed, lost and in danger of losing themselves. And it is not surprising that many among us turn towards the fundamental Elements, that have pre-existed human civilization in this world by millions of years, looking for a silent space where to ry and get ''re-rooted''. Getting in touch with the Elements is simple once done but it implies crossing a threshold. A physical and mental borderline. In ELEMENTAL the camera crosses that threshold together with some humans who do, trying to picture fragments of their contact with the elements - be it full of beauty, tenderness, fear, tension, liberation. This could have been photographed everywhere because the elements are what the world we inhabit is made of but it was pictured in a specific place on Earth, that I think is perfect for the tale: the Eolian Islands, in the Mediterranean Sea. In those tiny islands the elements, in fact, combined and took shape in a unique, powerful way. Named after the Greek god of wind - Eolus - the archipelago is touched by infinite shades of winds, with their infinite power, smells and songs: air. The seven islands emerged like pearls from the primordial cataclysms where the Earth's inner magma exited to blend with water and air to create from nothing a black, tormented and wonderous landscape: fire and land. Finally, everywhere around them, the immense breathing of the sea, the element of elements: water. The elements are not alien to turmoil and danger. Far from it. Crossing the threshold, doesn't take humans is a safe heaven, a comfort zone or a nest. On the contrary: they are totally indifferent to individual human destinies and humans don't have a right to feel safe when in touch with them. But in touch with them there is a possibility, not a promise, that we - humans - can learn some worldless lessons that are crucial for life and that our civilizations seems to be growing incapable to teach us.