In the apparent stillness of a solitary lake, the memories of two brothers resurface. With them a stone, buried for twenty years, too heavy to be ignored.

DIRECTOR’S NOTES:
The idea of “Sunken Stones” comes from an image: a child walks on the bottom of a lake with a stone in his hands. It is actually a memory, a sort of game that I used to play as a kid which I used to call “The Walk”. That image made me think of all those people who fight everyday to keep themself afloat in life, but they were given a stone to carry which keeps them from reaching the surface.
This thought made me think of the struggles that people I know face everyday, together with their families because of trauma. I have a brother, and I know what it means. So I thought of these two brothers, Elia and Carlo, whose lives are knotted by a shared childhood trauma. Victim and testimony of a terrible injustice that no one should ever face.
I also wanted to set the movie in places I know by heart, in this case Ledro Lake where I grew up. The lake here becomes a metaphor for memory itself, an allegorical space in someone’s mind. A deserted universe where only Carlo and Elia exist: the temple of memories.
I wanted the film to be authentic and filled with iconic shots. Just a few but well thought and significant frames that I could hang on the wall. In order to give it authenticity I filled it with real life memories, like that time me and my brother dragged up, fixed a boat and the owner came to reclaim it when the job was done. I believe that true memories like that give the realistic grain to a story that makes it unique.
The ending of the movie appears to answer all questions but it is actually open to various interpretations. The movie itself becomes a metaphor, a symbolic hope for those people who can understand what it means to have difficulties as portrayed in the film.