Dario Di Mella

An ultra-orthodox Jewish family from Aix-les-Bains comes to a farm in southern Italy for a brief stay every year to carry out a sacred mission: harvesting citrons. Here Elio, the farm owner, meets Esther, the rabbi’s daughter, who is tired of the constraints imposed by her religion. Through this relationship, Esther will understand the importance of freedom and find her path, and, in the same way, Elio will find the peace he had lost for a long time.

An ancestral and magical ritual is performed every year in a village lapped by the sea and the sun, on a late summer night that smells of salt and wild flowers. A memory for one night. A memory that tastes like home. What if there was someone who didn't just want to remember but relive? It should seek answers in that sea which is memory, heart, tears and vortex. This is Roberta's journey, a return home, to nostalgia, to loss. A return that is at the same time a new beginning...

Inspired by a true story, the film begins with the arrest of a boy and a girl (Antonio and Elena) both in shock and stoned by a mix of drugs and alcohol. The two guys are admitted to hospital where they both confess the murder of their friend Angela. A brutal murder and devoid of logic that will lead investigators to suspect that the two killers were not alone. Investigators soon discover a reality completely unknown to them: that of Satanism.

In a curious-looking old hospital, an elderly couple, Carlo and Clara, is waiting for their turn tenderly holding hands. There is a choice to be made, and the woman begins to hesitate. Only the words of the loving Carlo will be able to transform fear into courage. At one point the setting makes way for animation, suggested and overlapped by the words of Clara. It leads the listener to a deep reflection on life. The brief evocation of the magic of existence is imprinted in the deeply moved smile of the woman, certain that life on Earth is nothing but a stage of eternity.

"The Sound of Us" illustrates that during this critical time in world and U.S. history, music gives sound to hope and courage, allows us to grieve and be honest, and is the great, universal language that unites us all. "The Sound of Us" weaves inspiring stories about the beauty and goodness of music with interviews and performances by artists such as Ben Folds, Sarah McLachlan, Avery*Sunshine, Eric Whitacre, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Hiromi, Antonio Sanchez, Butch Walker, Will Wells, Patti Smith, Sekou Andrews and many more. Combined, these powerful vignettes illustrate how music heals us, gives us hope for the future through our children, keeps our heritage and history alive, allows us to have the most difficult of conversations, sheds light on current struggles, and continues to invite us back to the thing that unites us all - music.

"The Sound of Us" illustrates that during this critical time in world and U.S. history, music gives sound to hope and courage, allows us to grieve and be honest, and is the great, universal language that unites us all. "The Sound of Us" weaves inspiring stories about the beauty and goodness of music with interviews and performances by artists such as Ben Folds, Sarah McLachlan, Avery*Sunshine, Eric Whitacre, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Hiromi, Antonio Sanchez, Butch Walker, Will Wells, Patti Smith, Sekou Andrews and many more. Combined, these powerful vignettes illustrate how music heals us, gives us hope for the future through our children, keeps our heritage and history alive, allows us to have the most difficult of conversations, sheds light on current struggles, and continues to invite us back to the thing that unites us all - music.