The Successor

Who’s to blame for the deadly devastation that landmines cause? Is it those who lay the mines in the ground, or perhaps the manufacturer? Should the engineer who devises the technology bear moral responsibility for the victims? Vito Alfieri Fontana is grappling with these and other existential issues of guilt and punishment. This Italian engineer is the former owner of the arms company Tecnovar, which produced anti-personnel and anti-tank mines for about 30 years. Fontana succeeded his authoritarian father in the company, and at first he asked no questions. Old promotional material for the Tecnovar extols the durability of the product and illustrates how the mines can be dropped thousands at a time, rolled out like carpets of death. They may be easy to place, but the job of clearing them is dangerous, difficult, and time-consuming. Fontana travels to Bosnia-Herzegovina to reckon with himself. There he meets Nijaz Nemic, a paralympic skier. The two men look back on decisive moments in their lives, such as when Fontana’s son confronted him with the consequences of his occupation. Their subdued and reflective conversations are accompanied here and there by impressionist imagery, while archive footage illustrates the madness and destruction of war.