OMBRA DELLA LUCE

Ombra della luce (Shadow of Light) is a documentary that gives memory and voice to one Istrian woman. One, because their stories are interchangeable. For decades these women have crossed shifting borders, from the former Yugoslavia to today's Croatia, Slovenia and Italy, in order to secure the survival and future of their families. They work in the shadows, outside the gaze of states and institutions, yet their daily effort is what brings light into homes, sustains entire generations and opens possibilities for their children.

The film unfolds entirely as a dialogue in Istrian Venetian, a variant of Venetian spoken in Istria - a border language that preserves family intimacy and layered histories, becoming both a cultural root and an act of resistance. The images, deliberately elusive and never frontal, protect the anonymity of the protagonist: they do not reveal a face, but evoke a presence.