Produced by Zeeva Production, an indipendent company.
On September 26th, 1997, a violent earthquake shook central Italy. The effects were devastating. Television stations from all over the world broadcasted images of the incomparable artistic heritage that risked being destroyed forever. In Monsanpolo del Tronto, a small town in the Marches, the earthquake damaged the beautiful church Maria Santissima Assunta.
A few years later, during the restoration of the church, a sensational discovery was made: twenty perfectly preserved mummies from the middle of the sixteenth century wearing their original clothes. The bodies are a goldmine of information of inestimable scientific value.
Our voyage begins in Monsanpolo. We enter into the narrow passage that signals the divide between life and death. We revisit the different phases of Man’s struggle against nature-- his attempt to overcome the decomposition of the flesh. Why has man tried to transform the natural face of death by preserving mortal remains? What are mummies in our culture? What are the differences between the mummy of a Pope and that of an ordinary citizen? From the pharaohs of Ancient Egypt to the alchemists and inquisitors of the Middle Ages, to the French Revolution and Napoleon, we will track down the scientific knowledge, the different worships and legends that are linked to those human bodies preserved intact after death. Those bodies that come back to us as messengers from the past.