THE STONE EATER

IL MANGIATORE DI PIETRE

By Nicola BELLUCCI

CINEWORX FILMPRODUKTION GMBH - as PROD

Drama - Completed 2018

After finding the dead body of his nephew in a remote Piedmont valley, former smuggler Cesare hesitantly goes after the murderer and discovers the distortion of the sworn village community. A film based on the eponymous bestseller by Davide Longo.

Festivals
& Awards

Zurich FF 2018
Special Screenings
Zurich Film Fesitval 2018
    • Year of production
    • 2018
    • Genres
    • Drama
    • Countries
    • SWITZERLAND, ITALY
    • Languages
    • ITALIAN
    • Budget
    • 1 - 3 M$
    • Duration
    • 109 mn
    • Director(s)
    • Nicola BELLUCCI
    • Writer(s)
    • Hans W. GEISSENDÖRFER, Marco COLLI, Nicola BELLUCCI
    • Producer(s)
    • Pascal TRÄCHSLIN (CINEWORX FILMPRODUKTION GMBH), Enzo PORCELLI (ACHAB)
    • Synopsis
    • Cesare, a former bootlegger and human trafficker, finds the murdered body of his nephew Fausto in a remote Piedmont valley. Cesare himself introduced Fausto to the business of smuggling. The two men lost contact, since Fausto decided to specialize in mostly drug trafficking from Italy to Switzerland. Cesare refused to be involved in this dirty business any further, and from then on preferred to live on a day-to-day basis of occasional jobs.

      Cesare comes under observation the moment the police starts to investigate the murder. But soon the widowed loner wins the trust of leading investigator Sonja di Meo. She instead suspects the local police commissioner to be in cahoots with the drug smuggling ring. Romance begins to bloom between Sonja and the harsh mountain dweller. But the emotionally secluded Cesare won’t admit to such ample feelings – they would only derail his mission: He has sworn himself to avenge the death of Fausto and to hunt down the individuals behind the drug business.

      Sergio, a young man from the village, eager to flee the valley’s constriction, asks Cesare to guide a couple of stranded refugees over the border: The same refugees Fausto abandoned on an alp during his last assignment. Now Cesare decides to go for broke. With the help of Sergio he passes on incriminatory documents to Sonja, documents, which help to unmask the backers of the drug traffic. During their track to cross the border, the refugees and their mountaineer get shot at. Cesare’s life is on the line, when all of a sudden he has to stand up to a surprise antagonist.