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Mediterranean Identity Roots Through Arts

This documentary explores the hidden threads connecting diverse cultures across the Mediterranean through the power of art. Following a group of young artists from Italy, Greece, and Türkiye, it captures their journey of rediscovery — blending music, theatre, storytelling, and visual arts to reclaim forgotten traditions and reinterpret them in a contemporary context. Through immersive workshops, intimate portraits, and the final collective performance at the Museum of Troy, the film reveals how ancient rituals, local legends, and shared heritage shape identities while fostering cross-cultural dialogue and inclusion.

  • Francesco Tomei
    Director
  • Francesco Tomei
    Writer
  • Tolga Barman
    Writer
  • Venti d'arte APS
    Producer
  • Project Type:
    Documentary
  • Runtime:
    15 minutes 27 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    August 28, 2025
  • Production Budget:
    2,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    Italy
  • Country of Filming:
    Türkiye
  • Language:
    English, Greek (Modern), Italian, Turkish
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Francesco Tomei

Francesco Tomei is an Italian filmmaker, screenwriter, and cultural project manager whose work blends documentary storytelling, memory, and performing arts. With a Ph.D. in History of Arts and Performance (University of Florence, 2017), he creates films that explore identity, migration, and collective rituals through an immersive and human-centered visual language.

His debut docudrama, “Giuseppe Magi – A Century Long Story of Emigration and Dreams” (2019), received the Countless Cities Award at the Sicily Farm Film Festival and was officially selected at the Lucca Film Festival – Europa Cinema (2020). In “Cartoline Pascoliane” (2022), directed by Stefano Cosimini and written by Tomei, private photographs of Giovanni Pascoli become an intimate journey between Barga and the Valle del Serchio. The film was showcased at the RAM Film Festival and the International Tour Film Festival.

In 2024, Tomei wrote the screenplay and coordinated the regional production of “La Terra degli Streghi”, directed by Stefano Cosimini, a creative documentary exploring Tuscan legends and collective memory. The film was officially selected at the Lucca Film Festival and the Italy on Screen Festival – New York. His latest work, “FAST” (2025), where Tomei is screenwriter and regional coordinator, is an experimental docu-film on fast lifestyles and generational transformation. He is also the author of the upcoming “M.I.R.T.A. – Mediterranean Identity Roots Through Arts” (2025), a cross-cultural documentary produced within an Erasmus+ project, filmed between Italy, Greece, and Türkiye.

Tomei’s artistic approach merges reality, research, and performance, crafting documentaries that illuminate human connections, identity, and belonging. Through his films, he seeks to create spaces of dialogue that link personal stories to collective memory across the Mediterranean and beyond.

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Director Statement

The Mediterranean has always been more than a sea to me — it is a crossroads of voices, memories, and dreams. My work as a filmmaker begins from this meeting point, where different cultures, rituals, and landscapes intertwine. Through documentary, I seek to trace the invisible threads that connect communities across these shores, revealing how shared roots can coexist with diverse identities.

In projects like Mediterranean Identity Roots Through Arts, I explore the living heritage of the region through performances, stories, and collective rituals, capturing fragments of belonging and transformation. I am drawn to the spaces in between — between past and present, tradition and experimentation, local memory and global dialogue.

For me, cinema becomes a bridge: a way to listen deeply to people and places, and to translate their stories into immersive, human-centered narratives. Each film is an attempt to uncover the Mediterranean’s hidden layers — not only as geography, but as an inner sea of identities, migrations, and shared dreams.

My goal is not to document the Mediterranean as a static image but to reflect its living movement: the way cultures meet, exchange, and transform. Through these films, I hope to open spaces of dialogue where audiences can feel part of a collective story — one that transcends borders, yet remains deeply rooted in place.