Assunta and Erminia, mother and daughter, are two elderly women who live on the top of the highest mountain in Apulia: mount Cornacchia. From there, they overlook Faeto, a little village in which Don Antonio and the altar boy, Agostino, perform tasks and services that a town of six hundred souls requires. While the two are occupied with the annual blessings of the village houses, going from door to door; on the mountain, Assunta and Erminia take care of themselves, the livestock and the already precarious house. Since long ago, because of the street conditions, even the priest's blessing doesn't get up there. Don Antonio's mother will encourage him to look after everyone, even the last ones, in order to reduce the distance with the two women.

Director’s notes

During my artistic's residency ‘The wolves’ I lived in Faeto for 21 days, being able to connect with the community and the place. Among the various encounters I made, it was two realities that struck me: the relationship between the village and its parish priest Antonio, and the one between the mountain and Assunta and Erminia, who live alone in the highest part of the Dauni mountains in the Apulian region. I spent my days following and listening to the priest performing mass, and going from home to home to bless the people's home. I would also make my way up to the top of the mountain, observing the life of those two women removed from the life of the community. It is their living condition that in fact requires most support and it is their unsafe house that is in need of a blessing more than the other. After having built more of a relationship with the priest, I asked him why he didn’t make his way up there. The film and my role as a director is also a subtle attempt of this small gesture–creating a possible encounter and therefore bringing those two stories together, with the priest in the end visiting Assunta and Erminia to engage in their reality.