Hands Shaking (The Man Is Shaking)

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Synopsis
Electronics and ritual pulses build a hypnotic tension, threaded with essential, almost archetypal electronic melodies with Eastern inflections that linger immediately in the memory. The voice enters intoning “Hands shaking, the man is shaking”, while fragments in the Venetian dialect surface through the electronic texture. Impressions gathered between Thailand and India accompany a track suspended between fear, trust and surrender to the Dharma, leading to a biting finale built around a sampled distorted-guitar sound. The track is accompanied by a short film shot in Ladakh, on the roof of the world, where water and rock tell the cycle of life: birth, knowledge, death and rebirth.

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Context
I wanted to climb into the Hindu Valley, where rock—broken by sun and water—flows down into the valley, carrying life and knowledge; and then descend again toward the ocean of the Basque coast. Rock, a cosmic element that seems inert and impenetrable, becomes for me a material of empathy and alchemy: we are born from it and return to it in a continuous life cycle.  

The film moves through Buddhist monasteries at 4,000 meters, tributaries of the Hindu (Indus) River, gorges and rocky ridges, and abandoned human settlements that crumble day after day, returning to the earth. Later, the Fayum portraits entered the narrative: faces from the epilogue of the Egyptian era that—after a revelation two years after the Ladakh journey—merge with the extras' faces and with rock itself, until they become a single matter preserving lives, memories, and traces of belonging.  

The song's lyrics mix English and Italian into a few forcefully spoken words—"shaking hands." A sign of both trust and fear, it points to entrusting oneself to the Dharma: as universal as the endless cycle of transformation, and an act of faith in others and in the mystery of life and death.  

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Lyrics
Stringere le mani, e fidarmi , affidarmi  al destino
hands shaking the man is shaking
segui segui l’om, segui segui l’om bambino
segui segui l’om, segui segui l’om bambino
segui segui l’om, segui segui l’om bambino
segui segui l’om, segui segui l’om bambino
segui segui l’om, segui segui l’om bambino
segui segui l’om, segui segui l’om bambino
segui segui l’om, segui segui l’om bambino
hands shaking the man is shaking
Stringere le mani
Segui segui l’om, segui segui l’om

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Credits
Director: Stefano Curto  
Concept & Creative Direction: Stefano Curto  
Music: STENOX (Stefano Curto)  
Cinematography / Editing: Mattia Bello  
Drone Cinematography: Nitin Chauhan  
Makeup: Aldo Rebuli  
Production Assistants: Rudi Buso; Pantxoa Larreguy  
Cast: Federica (Mimicoco); Mattia Bello; Stefano Curto; Little Monks in Khalsi (Ladakh); Fayum Portraits