PRESENTS:

IULIAE

Il silenzio, la pietra, la memoria

A documentary by MASSIMO D'ALESSANDRO

A documentary film blending archaeology and intimate storytelling.

Official history has not preserved a single word about Julia the Younger (Vipsania Julia Agrippina), the favorite granddaughter of Emperor Augustus. Banished in 8 AD to the remote cliffs of the Tremiti Islands (ancient *Trimerus*) on the shameful charge of adultery, she remained there until her death twenty years later, suspended in a silence that has lasted for millennia.

"IULIAE, il silenzio, la pietraa, la memoria" is a documentary that intertwines the scientific excavation in the field with a dramatic and intimate story. The film follows the investigative campaign conducted as part of the M.A.R.E.A. Project. (funded by the European Union) which sees archaeologists from the Universities of Foggia and Salento, together with speleologists from ASSO ETS, descend into the spectacular Roman cisterns up to 15 meters deep and explore the monumental remains of a cryptoporticus and a sumptuous Roman villa on the island of San Nicola.

From those ancient stones, the broken voice of Giulia re-emerges, brought to life in a poetic and incisive monologue rooted in the rigorous grounding of historical sources.

In 8 AD, the condemnation of Julia the Younger shook the Roman court [10, 17]. Accused of adultery and scandalous conduct, the granddaughter of the *Pater Patriae* was torn from her children and banished to the remote island of *Trimerus*. Her ashes would never rest in the dynastic mausoleum, and even the son born after her condemnation was denied the right to life [10, 17]. But what did such a severe punishment truly conceal?

The documentary **IULIAE** reveals that the moral charge was the perfect ruse orchestrated by the regime to mask a ruthless dynastic and political conflict. Julia was the heart of Augustus's own bloodline faction; she was married to Lucius Aemilius Paullus, who was executed for conspiring against the rise of the Claudian faction led by Tiberius and Livia. Julia's exile amounted to the systematic purging of the final obstacle to the succession.

The film unfolds along two narrative tracks:

Science and Mystery: We follow contemporary archaeological discoveries on the island of San Nicola in real time. We accompany researchers as they conduct 3D drone surveys, laser scans of monumental Roman ruins, and breathtaking descents into underground water cisterns, all in search of physical traces of a twenty-year-long occupation.

The Exile's Voice: The silence of the stones is broken by the intimate, modern recitative of Giulia—an educated, emancipated woman who lucidly analyzes the mechanisms of power that crushed her and condemned her to "civil death."

In the background, the island of San Nicola reveals itself as an enduring "stone boundary" across the centuries [10]: from the Roman *Trimerus* and the medieval Benedictine monastic retreat to its transformation into a prison once again in the twentieth century—housing Libyan prisoners in 1911, anti-Fascists like Sandro Pertini, and homosexuals deported by the regime.

A visionary work in which the sea—the very same sea that isolated Giulia for twenty years—becomes a dynamic actor, restoring to us the memory of a truth that had remained buried for too long.

PRODUCTION STAFF:

• Scientific Coordination: Danilo Leone, Mariuccia Turchiano (University of Foggia

• Executive Production: Mario Mazzoli, Maria Teresa Pilloni (A.S.S.O. ETS)
• Screenplay and Direction: Massimo D'Alessandro
• Cinematography: Marco Vitelli (A.S.S.O. ETS)
• Estimated runtime: 52 minutes
• Language: Italian (English, French, and German subtitles)
• Premiere: December 2026