Hands, metal and memory: the film “Sonaggios” reminds us why craftsmanship should be saved
Sardinian cowbells, hands blackened by iron and anvils, stories that span centuries. Sonaggios is the name of director Pietro Mereu's new documentary, which will have its world premiere at the San Francisco International Film Festival 2025. But this film is much more than a story about the making of ancient objects: it is an act of love for a knowledge that is in serious danger of disappearing.
“Sonaggios”: the ancient sound of cowbells and the silent cry of resisting artisans
Filmed between Tonara and other Barbagia municipalities, Sonaggios takes us inside the workshops of the Sulis and Floris families, among the last remaining to forge by hand the cowbells used in Barbagia's carnivals and pastoral farming. Alongside them are the Locci brothers of Desulo and the Mamuthones of Mamoiada: faces and gestures that are the beating heart of an authentic Sardinia.
The documentary - an Italian-Canadian co-production with Velvet Cut, Megafun and Terra de Punt - is a visual hymn to tradition, with powerful photography by Samir Ljuma, already known for Honeyland. Yet, the beauty of the images leaves room for an underlying melancholy: that of a knowledge that requires years of study, practice, sacrifice... only to be paid, often, less than the market value of a fast fashion T-shirt.
The art of cowbell making: when time is worth more than money
Learning to forge a rattle doesn't take weeks or months. It takes years. It takes dedication, sensitivity to metal and sound. It takes making mistakes, remaking, understanding, passing on. An investment of time that few are willing to make today, especially if the financial return is minimal.
Mereu's documentary does not overtly denounce this paradox, but shows it with touching naturalness. It speaks in images, in glances. And in the voice of Pietro, who tells about his brother-a former fashion manager turned artisan-we read all the desire for redemption of a craft that is culture, not just technique.
A story that belongs to everyone: endangered artisans
That of Sardinian cowbells is a local story, certainly. But it is also universal. It is the story of so many Italian artisans, heirs to ancestral knowledge that takes years to learn, but which today struggles to find a market that recognizes it as a value.
There is a generational turnover that is not happening, because young people often choose other, safer, more profitable paths. And those who remain find themselves caught between the love of the craft and the impossibility of making a decent living from it.
In the world of arts and crafts, this is one of the most urgent and least told problems: who will carry on these traditions when the last custodians are gone? And what will we as a community lose in letting this knowledge fade into oblivion?
Tradition and the future: we still have a choice
Sonaggios is an invitation to look back to understand what we want to take into the future. It is not just about cowbells, but about an idea of society in which manual knowledge still plays a central role. And if everything today revolves around artificial intelligence, perhaps it is just the time to go back to talking about “manual intelligence” as well.
The sound of a cowbell vibrating in the Sardinian valleys is not just folklore: it is memory, identity, resistance. As long as there is someone willing to listen to it.
An interview by TGR Regione with Pietro Mereu about the documentary Sonaggios follows.
