The Stonebreaker

The Stonebreaker

2020 · 104 min · ★ 6.2 · Drama

After a serious accident Giuseppe is out of work. His son Antò dreams of being an archaeologist and thinks his father's glass eye is a sign he has superpowers. It's just the two of them now, since their beloved wife and mother Angela collapsed and died while working in the fields. Now they've lost their home, too, and have taken shelter in a tent city with other seasonal workers. Through all this, Giuseppe still summons up the strength to hug his son every night and tell him a story. He's promised Antò he will have his mother back, one day, and will do anything to keep his promise.

Directed by Massimiliano De Serio · Written by Gianluca De Serio

Your Rating

Where to Watch

Rent or Buy

Cast

Make it a double feature

4h 7m together

The Stonebreaker

In the Heights

A close match in mood and era.

More from Massimiliano De SerioSee all →

Canone effimero

Canone effimero · 2025

Canone effimero

MovieDocumentaryMusic

Moving through Italy’s regions, the De Serio brothers come across an alternative popular culture and shoot a rectangular film about polyvocal songs, music ethnology and oral tradition. Radically contemporary, energetic, close to nature, local. Lyrical.

Late August

Late August · 2021

MovieDocumentary

Sicily, 2020. In a godforsaken countryside, a sudden change of weather finally marks the end of a suffocating summer. An immersion into the landscapes of a wounded island.

Seven Acts of Mercy

Seven Acts of Mercy · 2012

Seven Acts of Mercy

Luminita, a young illegal immigrant living on the edge of a shanty town, has hatched a plan to get herself out of her predicament. To carry it through she bumps into Antonio, a sick and mysterious old man. The clash between the two of them is unavoidable and harsh, and leads to unforeseeable consequences…

My Brother Yang

My Brother Yang · 2004

My Brother Yang

A Donatello award nominated short drama concluding a trilogy of films about a young Chinese girl living clandestinely in Italy.

Deriva

Last Emperor

Last Emperor · 2023

MovieDramaScience Fiction

Life on the edge of a boy and a woman meet and unite, for a moment, among the rubble and solitude of one of the largest discotheques in Europe of the 1990s: Last Empire. Here, between the fog and the cold, the warmth of humanity seems to have almost disappeared, in the silence and in the spaces that, years before, had hosted the nights of a passionate youth.

Bakroman

Bakroman · 2010

MovieDocumentary

In Moré, the language spoken in Burkina Faso, the term bakroman means “street kid.” To defend their rights and nurture their hopes, they have joined together in a sort of union that seems to make the possibility of one day freeing themselves from that condition more concrete.

More Like This

The Man Who Invented Christmas

The Man Who Invented Christmas · 2017

The Man Who Invented Christmas

MovieDramaHistory

In 1843, despite the fact that Dickens is a successful writer, the failure of his latest book puts his career at a crossroads, until the moment when, struggling with inspiration and confronting reality with his childhood memories, a new character is born in the depths of his troubled mind; an old, lonely, embittered man, so vivid, so human, that a whole world grows around him, a story so inspiring that changed the meaning of Christmas forever.

Billy Elliot

Billy Elliot · 2000

MovieDramaComedy

County Durham, England, 1984. The miners' strike has started and the police have started coming up from Bethnal Green, starting a class war with the lower classes suffering. Caught in the middle of the conflict is 11-year old Billy Elliot, who, after leaving his boxing club for the day, stumbles upon a ballet class and finds out that he's naturally talented. He practices with his teacher Mrs. Wilkinson for an upcoming audition in Newcastle-upon Tyne for the royal Ballet school in London.

Frozen Land

Frozen Land · 2005

When a schoolteacher is sacked, he projects his bad mood at his troubled teenage son. The son, in turn, buys a CD player from a pawnshop with counterfeit money. This starts a chain reaction of misery as every victim projects his problems on to another person.

Together

Together · 2002

MovieDramaFamily

When a violin prodigy Xiaochun and his father head to Beijing seeking fame and fortune, they soon discover a fierce world of cutthroat ambition. But when Xiaochun is "adopted" by a famous music tutor, success finally seems within reach - until a shocking discovery begins to unravel his entire world, and the boy must make the most difficult choice of his life. Can he achieve the fame his father had always hoped for without losing the extraordinary passion that sets him apart?

Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles

Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles · 2005

Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles

Takada, a Japanese fisherman has been estranged from his son for many years, but when the son is diagnosed with terminal cancer his daughter-in-law, Rie, summons him to the hospital. Through a series of obstacles and relationships, he is brought unexpectedly closer to both an understanding of himself and of his son.

Bullet

MovieActionDrama

A tough, Jewish ex-con just released from prison crosses a powerful drug dealer and former prison rival in his return to a life of crime.

War for the Planet of the Apes

War for the Planet of the Apes · 2017

War for the Planet of the Apes

MovieDramaScience Fiction

Caesar and his apes are forced into a deadly conflict with an army of humans led by a ruthless Colonel. After the apes suffer unimaginable losses, Caesar wrestles with his darker instincts and begins his own mythic quest to avenge his kind. As the journey finally brings them face to face, Caesar and the Colonel are pitted against each other in an epic battle that will determine the fate of both their species and the future of the planet.

In the Heights

In the Heights · 2021

MovieDramaRomance

The story of Usnavi, a bodega owner who has mixed feelings about closing his store and retiring to the Dominican Republic or staying in Washington Heights.

Unbreakable

Unbreakable · 2000

MovieThrillerDrama

An ordinary man makes an extraordinary discovery when a train accident leaves his fellow passengers dead — and him unscathed. The answer to this mystery could lie with the mysterious Elijah Price, a man who suffers from a disease that renders his bones as fragile as glass.

The Color of Paradise

The Color of Paradise · 1999

The Color of Paradise

MovieFamilyDrama

Mohammad joyfully returns to his tiny village on summer vacation from the Institute for the Blind, unaware of his widowed father's intentions to disown him in order to win the hand—and dowry—of a local woman. With the wedding swiftly approaching, Mohammad's future hangs precariously in the balance as his father struggles against his destiny, unable to see the wonder of life and love that's so clear to his son.

Rate this film

Your ratings make Midnight smarter