Denis Brotto's film "Blu" selected for Rome Film Fest
September 25, 2026
The documentary film Blu, directed by Denis Brotto, lecturer at the University of Padua, has been selected for the upcoming Rome Film Fest in the Special Screening section, which hosts special events, previews and documentaries of major cultural significance.
Blu, directed by Denis Brotto, featuring Marco Baliani and with the participation of Susie Barrow, Tonino Bertoleoni, Silvia Cao, Guido Galletti, Andrea Mortolesa and Matteo Rigato, is a production by National Biodiversity Future Centre in co-production with the University of Padua and executive production by AViLab. It was born from an idea by Telmo Pievani, Mariella Rasotto and Denis Brotto and from a story by Chiara Anzolini, Denis Brotto, Tommaso Brugin, Fabio De Pascale, Federico Massa, Telmo Pievani and Mariella Rasotto.
It is a cinematic journey through the Italian seas, a route from south to north that follows the breathing of the water and the traces it continues to leave in the landscape, in memory and in the imagination. Through the voice and gaze of Marco Baliani, the film explores coasts and islands, seabeds and shorelines. From Aci Trezza and Siracusa to Ustica and Favignana, from Torre Guaceto to Asinara and Tavolara, all the way to the Cinque Terre and Trieste: places where the sea still preserves ancient stories and bears witness to profound transformations.
Moving between science and myth, observation and storytelling, Blu brings to life a sensory and visual exploration of a vital yet fragile universe: a submerged geography made of biodiversity, creatures, currents and presences, intertwined with ancient legends and memories layered over time. Yet, beneath the surface, the signs of an increasingly threatened balance emerge: rising temperatures, pollution and the consequences of human activity. Both a contemplative and urgent portrait, Blu questions our relationship with the sea: a living and vulnerable presence that today demands a new perspective and a deeper awareness.
«I have always thought of the sea as a place capable of holding a memory that does not entirely belong to us. A place that is constantly changing and that, beneath the surface, seems to preserve the traces of distant times, of myths and, perhaps, of what we once were. Even before being geography, the sea is a place of the imagination, carrying with it stories, deities, monsters, shipwrecks, metamorphoses," says Denis Brotto, director of Blu and lecturer in Cinema and Visual Culture at the University of Padua. "Blu arose from the desire to travel through these places, to listen to what they still conceal today. A journey from South to North, following the Italian coastlines and letting ourselves be guided by the movement of the waves. For months we tried to capture the deep soul of landscapes, seabeds, terrestrial and marine creatures. And then the sounds, only apparently similar to silences. In observing the sea and its changes, a suspended, distant dimension emerged. One made of stretched time, changing light and unexpected discoveries. From this dimension," Brotto concludes, "the signs of a transformation now emerge: ever warmer waters, ecosystems in difficulty, marine life forced to alter its habitats. It is this distance, between what the sea has been and what it is becoming, that runs through the entire film».
Denis Brotto is a director and lecturer in Cinema and visual culture at the University of Padua. He is the author of studies devoted to Aleksandr Sokurov and Jean Vigo and of publications in the field of visual culture and contemporary cinema, including Trame digitali. Cinema e nuove tecnologie (2012), François Truffaut. La letteratura al cinema (2018, edited volume), In una coltre di nubi. L'immagine contemporanea tra cinema e cultura visuale (2025).
As a director, he has made: Esedra (2015), for the Museo della Padova Ebraica; the documentary In Bloom | Tito Livio (2020), with Marco Paolini and Gabriele Vacis, presented on RAI5; Logos Zanzotto, dedicated to the poet Andrea Zanzotto, presented as a special event at the Giornate degli Autori of the Mostra del Cinema di Venezia; La Forma della Memoria (2022), a video installation for the 800th anniversary of the University and Goethe. La vita delle foglie (2023), for the Museo dell'Orto Botanico di Padova with Giulio Casale; Estra (2026), a film-concert by the rock group of the same name.
Scenes from the documentary film
