Spaccapietre (2020)

Giuseppe and Angela are the young parents of little Anto'. The family lives in poverty, and things get worse when Giuseppe, a stonecutter in a quarry, suffers a serious eye injury in an accident that prevents him from continuing to work. Angela is then forced to work illegally on a farm, but she dies from the extreme physical demands of the job. To comfort Anto', Giuseppe promises him that one day he will be able to bring his mother back to him. Giuseppe's former employer refuses to let him return to work at the quarry, so he has no choice but to turn to the same labor brokers Angela had worked for. He and Anto' settle in an illegal shantytown near the fields. The farm is run by Mimmo, a cruel overseer who never misses an opportunity to mistreat the workers and pay them less than they are owed. Even so, the two begin working hard. Anto' befriends many of the other laborers, and through them he meets Rosa, another undocumented worker who is continually abused by the landowner, a sadistic man who takes pleasure in humiliating his workers. Rosa was friends with Angela and was there the day she died. She and Anto' become friends, and he also introduces her to Giuseppe. One day, a fire breaks out, killing a young immigrant who had been applying pesticides to the crops. Mimmo decides that Giuseppe will take his place. One day, while riding on the tractor Giuseppe is driving, Anto' sees Mimmo beating Rosa. Giuseppe and Anto' rush to help her, but Mimmo incapacitates them both. The boy and his father are separated: Giuseppe and Rosa are taken to the landowner, while Anto' is brought home and cared for by a young migrant worker. When the boy wakes up, he sneaks into the landowner's villa in search of his father. There he discovers the landowner forcing Giuseppe and Rosa, at gunpoint, to simulate sexual intercourse for him. Anto' knocks him unconscious with a pickaxe that belonged to his grandfather, who was also a stonecutter. To help Rosa and Anto' escape, Giuseppe kills the landowner, and then Mimmo as well; Mimmo, however, fatally stabs him. As Giuseppe bleeds to death, Rosa and Anto' flee the villa. As he runs, the boy sees his friend transform into Angela: Giuseppe's promise has been kept, and Anto' has his mother back.