Flesh, Wax & Glass

Charting three years of a Southern Italian bloodletting rite, and one family's process of mourning, this is psychedelic ethnography that grapples with love, doubt, and religious devotion in the 21st century. 

Part I, The Age of the Father (2023), follows Saturno, a Calabrian lorry driver undertaking his 33rd Vattienti procession, where men flagellate their legs with glass-embedded disks of cork. Shot on 16mm, the film presents a tender portrait of ritual, weaving Holy Week with imagery of the Stromboli volcano and medieval Christian symbolism. Shortly after filming, Saturno passed away, shaping the sequel.


Part II, The Age of the Son (2024), revisits the rite through Saturno’s sons, focusing on inheritance and the entanglement of filmmaker and subject. Francesco, Saturno’s son, performs the ritual for the first time since his father’s death. The film incorporates a town screening of The Age of the Father, alongside staged scenes of Francesco carrying a mirror and watching Pasolini’s The Gospel According to St. Matthew, with poetic narration and music by Coby Sey.


The final part, The Age of the Holy Spirit (2025), will shift focus to Silvana, Saturno’s widow, and the often-overlooked role of women in the Vattienti tradition. The three parts will then be edited together into a ~ 70 min single channel film, completing the trilogy’s meditation on devotion, loss, and legacy.