Lux Santa is a pure documentary, without compromises, because there is no intervention by the director, who limits himself only to telling an ancient tradition, that is the fires of Santa Lucia which every year on December 13th are set up in Crotonea Calabrian town of seventy thousand inhabitants from a group of boys from Fondo Gesù, one of the most difficult neighborhoods in southern Italy. Boys who at the age of fifteen find themselves struggling with the search for wood to make fires and with their personal problems. There are those who have a father in prison who is about to be tried, those who have never met him and those who in turn are already a father and are unemployed.
Signed by Matthew Russo and produced by Naffintusi in collaboration with Rai Cinema, the docu – which will be distributed by Cattivi Produzioni from 22 January – tells the story of the Fires of Saint Lucia ritual, which unites these young people, beyond their problems, for a single objective: to create the tallest and most imposing structure in the city, a majestic wooden pyramid to be burned. Legend tells how Saint Lucia, a Christian martyr, was blind – as she is represented in the paintings that portray her, staring into space and holding a silver plate with her eyes on it – and so today she is venerated as the protectress of sight also due to the assonance between its name and light. Legend also has it that, after her conversion to Christianity, Lucia suffered loss of sight or had her eyes gouged out in an attempt to resist sin.
«Lux Santa aims to lift the veil from crime news and show glimpses of a usually hidden beauty – he says the director, originally from Crotone -. Our protagonists, through their eyes full of pain, take us through the streets of the neighborhood showing us how in such a hostile territory (Fondo Gesù), life, friendship and union around this popular tradition helps them to survive to the absence of their fathers. The first objective I set myself – continues Russo – is to shorten the distance, first of all between me and my ‘new friends’ and consequently bring the spectator closer to those lives, in a completely natural way. Giving the viewer the feeling of being there with them to overcome every obstacle and reach the top of the majestic pyramid. Therefore, shorten the distance between work and reality, between subject and object.” In the cast Lupine Zucchero (Francesco Vaccaro); Sugar (Francesco Scarriglia); Pidux (Enrico Scerra) and Citos (Antonio Citati).