“In Semidei, archive material from the past and original material from our present time are intermingled in an attempt to create a single present lasting 2,500 years and then imagine the future. Indeed, today is the future we most fear – not the past. The Bronzes represent space, hence the places they have passed through since the moment they were created up to their rediscovery in Calabria. It’s a landscape that buckles under their bronze skin and merges with it until they become one: marvelous and strong, complex and fragile at the same time – a thing that needs to be protected. The Bronzes are two brothers, Eteocles and Polynices, who slay each other for the same crown, but they are also saints Cosmas and Damian, patron saints of Riace and its people. […] The Bronzes are all of us who have gazed on them in rapture over the centuries. We reflect on the surface of their metallic skin and see our own reflection – or what we desire for ourselves. This is why they are ‘semi-gods’.” [Fabio Mollo, Alessandra Cataleta]

Fabio Mollo graduated from the University of East London in 2002 and then received a degree in directing at the CSC – Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, where he made a number of shorts, including Al buio (selected for the Venice Film Festival) and Giganti (in competition at the Berlinale, Best Short Film at the Torino Film Festival).  His debut narrative feature in 2013, Il Sud è niente, competed at the Berlinale (Generation section). His first documentary feature, the 2015 film Vincenzo da Crosia, won an award at Torino and was shortlisted for the Silver Ribbons. In 2015-2016, Mollo accompanied director Paolo Sorrentino during the filming of the series The Young Pope and made an HBO and Sky documentary called The Young Pope – a Tale of Filmmaking. Mollo’s second feature film, Il padre d’Italia, came out in 2017, followed by Anni da cane in 2021, which premiered at the Rome Film Festival – Alice nella città. In 2022 he directed My Soul Summer, a musical, also selected for Rome Film Festival – Alice nella città.

Alessandra Cataleta graduated with a degree in modern literature from the Sapienza University of Rome in 2002. On a grant five years later, she attended the Brighton Film School and won the BBC Untold South Contest for her short film about jazz singer Renee Ansell. A writer and director for MTV and RAI, in 2014 Cataleta directed her first documentary, Scarti, which competed at the Festival Sguardi Altrove. In 2016 she made the doc Il futuro non me lo ricordo, Special Mention at the winter edition of the mental health festival Lo Spiraglio. Currently she is wrapping up the filming of her new documentary La vita che mi diedi, a biopic about the legendary puppeteer Anna Cuticchio.