SACHA

Our lives are made up of connections—connections with people, with the environment, with the tools of our trade. Some are so essential, that if we lose them, we lose a part of who we are.
This short film explores the essential connections that make Sacha who he is—a fisherman from Carloforte (on the Isle of San Pietro, Sardinia) with a special relationship with the people and nature of his island home. Stories of a life connected to the sea, conveyed through the hands of a man who still repairs his nets. Sacha is the son of a long line of fishermen, whose maritime studies led him to travel the world as an officer on large merchant ships, before returning home to become a simple fisherman on the fishing boat that once belonged to his father.
His is a simple, essential existence, amid the falcons and cliffs, rich in friendships built on bonds of humanity—his ties with the local shipwright, with a local economy built more on bartering than money, and with the local Tabarchino dialect that binds the people together and roots them to their island. An existence in which sharing is a fundamental value, enshrined in the tradition of the “casciandra,” where helping out becomes a celebration of friendships, amid fire, food, hard work, music, and joy.
The film is part of a larger future project aiming to explore the nuances of the connections and relationships that bind and affect us all. A rich and stimulating web of interconnections that we need to be aware of and to confront, if we are to change course and find new, more agreeable ways of being, in harmony with ourselves, with nature, and with the planet.