In Carrara, Italy, one man directs his small crew as they carve glacier-white hunks of marble out of the side of a mountain. Yuri Ancarani’s wordless film is a treat for the senses; he shoots the massive slabs of marble from a wide variety of angles and perspectives, some of which reveal the epic scale of the excavations while others make the rocks seem dwarfed by the machines at work. The gigantic stones glide down to earth in slow motion, with a muted soundtrack, which adds to the surreal feeling of the whole enterprise. And presiding over it all is il capo (the boss), conducting a symphony for quarry machines with a flurry of movements and hand gestures.

Rebecca Mormino, 2011 Festival