In the heart of Val Bormida once stood a giant: Ferrania, a factory and a legend of the 20th century. For over eighty years it produced film stock that carried Italian ingenuity across the world, shaping a community and a shared dream. It was more than industry: it was a workers’ village, leisure time, culture, sports, daily life. Today, of that titanic force, only shadows remain among empty warehouses and living memories. The Shadow of the Giant tells the rise and fall of this industrial and social excellence. Through archives, testimonies, and the gaze of Achille Schinca—who joined as a worker in 1962—the story comes alive again. Shot inside the abandoned plant, the film restores a forgotten world to the present. A journey through time, industrial identity, and the deep meaning of belonging to a place and its history.

Director's note

The story of Ferrania has always fascinated me because it is not only about industry, but about life. It was a factory that produced film stock, but above all it built a world: homes, cultural spaces, sports activities, friendships, identity, and hopes for the future of thousands of people. To tell the story of Ferrania means to tell the story of a collective dream, of a future that once seemed endless. Filming inside the abandoned plant felt like entering a cathedral of the twentieth century: walls still holding voices, gestures, memories. I wanted to weave these material traces together with the testimonies of those who lived them, restoring emotions, memories, and pride. My inspiration came from Achille Schinca: for years I listened to his legendary stories about Ferrania, and I was so captivated that I imagined a film in which his personal journey would become the thread through which to narrate the history of the factory. This work is not only a tribute to a great Italian excellence, but also a reflection on the passing of time, the fragility of industrial dreams, and the strength of memory. Through Ferrania’s story, I seek to explore the meaning of belonging to a place and a community: what remains, today, of that giant? And what can it still tell us about our present?