In Luca Manes’ feature doc project Sunken Memories, a concave object being used as a flower pot turns out to be part of a US plane that crashed and sank in the Mediterranean during the crucial 2WW Battle of Anzio in 1944. The discovery of the object’s provenance changes irrevocably the lives of three men who previously had no idea of each other’s existence.
The highly dramatic and emotional film will engage audiences on two fronts. First of all there is the story of the B52 bomber, its role in the conflict and its shooting down. Then there is the story of three men; Valerio who, at the age of 14, picked up the strange concave object only to discover some 40 years later its true significance; Casey, the son of a surviving crewman from the stricken plane, and Philippe, a French expert on the recovery of ship wrecks and who was involved with the team responsible for locating the plane in which French novelist Antoine de Saint-Exupéry was flying when he was shot down over the sea close to Marseille.
Each has a stake in the story that unfolds and which will conclude in a boat on the Mediterranean in Summer 2022 as an attempt will be made to locate and recover the sunken bomber.
“In the end each one of them is actually chasing his own father, hidden in the depths of the sea,” says producer Leonardo Baraldi. “I think the fatal relationship between father and son is in fact the main theme of my film [and] the personal relationship they all have with the event will bring them closer to the viewers and eventually provide them with an emotional and universal message.”
The €331,942 budget doc already has a partner in Italian Rai Doc. At MIA, Baraldi is looking for international co-producers, distributors and broadcasters. The shooting locations are Italy (including Rome and Anzio), Marseille and Seattle. “We have to find the budget abroad,” says Baraldi, adding that other funding options include tax credits in Italy and public funds for production. “What we really want to at least have is a bilateral co-production, or a trilateral one is better for us.”
Baraldi tells how Valerio felt a freedom to investigate the subject of the sunken ship after the death of his father, at which point he threw himself into the project with gusto, making it “his passion.” His research formed the basis of his university master thesis. He was, Baraldi says, “in a way of reconnecting with his past, with his father.”
American Casey became part of the project after Baraldi posted a teaser on a US vets You Tube Channel. “Casey replied and said, ‘hey, I’m the son of one of the guys who was in the bomber – Jonah Armstrong.”
“We realized that he had a very strong relationship with his father,” adds Baraldi, relating how Casey was his dad’s favourite and confidant when telling his war stories. “But then after the death of his father some years ago, his family disbanded and he had problems with his siblings. So he’s looking at this story and the research around the bomber as a way to unite his family and siblings, trying to get back the memory of their father.”
Philippe plays more of a figurative father role in the documentary. This is “probably the last mission of this man, and so he wants this last mission to be a success, to find the bomber and to give this satisfaction and joy both to Casey and to Valerio,” says Baraldi.
With a mooted delivery date of Autumn 2022, the project may have started life as a historical document concerning the downing of a plane during the Battle of Anzio but it soon evolved into something altogether more engaging and universal. “It has completely changed into a feature documentary dealing with very human stories,” Baraldi concludes.
