With Music, Documents and Myths

A fantastic journey with Celtic music and spirituality
seeking lost traditions



Five musicians follow the traces of invisible traditions

The film is centred on the work of the LabGraal and their search for the ancient heart of the world's natural Peoples, the Natives of the planet. It is a musical path and a journey into the heart of ancient traditions, from the Native Americans and the Australian Aborigines, reaching to the roots of Europe.
The film deals with the common origins of the natural Peoples and the bonds between their realities. These populations are still present on all the continents, including the European territory, from the Breton community, to the traditions of the territories of Piedmont.
"Shan" in the archaic culture of Druidic shamanism represents the immateriality of existence, like the "dreamtime" of the Australian Aborigines. The film director and the protagonists decided on this title because of its emblematic significance and its reference to the search and the rediscovery of the ancient traditions that make up the background of the creative work of the group.
The film has as its underlying feature the music of the LabGraal and the story develops around the battles that the group has conducted for many years to defend the traditions and the sacred places of the native Peoples of the planet.


The Film "Shan" follows three parallel paths:

The Musical Path
It is the most present element, always constant in the lives of the five protagonists. The Celtic music of the LabGraal brings out the tribal soul of Celtic music, expression of the native Europeans, and it reveals the common roots of the musical traditions of all the natural Peoples.
The power of Celtic music, mixed with Aboriginal, Apache sounds and other sonorities of the world of the natural Peoples, is the underlying theme that ties together the various stories of the film.

The Battle for the Rights of the Natural Peoples
The path of the struggle for the rights of Natives, through battles conducted at the United Nations by Rosalba and Giancarlo, the interviews with Native exponents, the travels of the group in the countries of the causes they support are described in the film; in this picture, Rosalba's fight for animal rights is also inserted, an element that is always very present in her life.
Rosalba and Giancarlo are Representatives at the United Nations of five Native Communities: the San Carlos Apaches of the Apache Survival Coalition of Arizona, the Australian Aborigines of the Wamba Wamba Nation, the Taino population of the Caribbean, the Bassa People of the Mbog Parlement of Cameroon and the Bretons of the Menhirs Libres.

The Journey into the Myth
The spirit of the LabGraal is not only music; it is also an interior search. This search is the invisible theme of the entire film. "Shan" is the ancient name of the Grail, and it is precisely the search for the Grail, understood as the immaterial aspect of existence, that brought together the five members of the group. The five "wayfarers of the Grail" (Viandanti del Graal) found themselves together on a path seeking the invisible, the mystery that animates all existence.
It was a search outside of religious dogmas, along a route that brought them into contact with the intimate heart of natural Peoples. This aspect, though less striking, profoundly marks the entire course of the film.
The path they followed brought the five musicians into contact with the traditions of the Native Europeans.
On this journey, there is the search of the five protagonists for the traces of the Grail, which, according to a myth of the ancient inhabitants of Europe was guarded in the city of Rama, a megalithic city located in Piedmont that can be considered the origin of the Celtic tradition.
This is the "fiction" part of the film.
The five musicians interpret the legend of Rama, an a symbolic transposition inspired by extraordinary events that can be traced back into the archaic past of humanity and to mystical experiences inspired by the heritage of knowledge of the autochthonous peoples of Europe. The film gives a glimpse of a parallel life of the five protagonists balancing on the edge between two worlds, between the past and the future.
Alongside the events lived in our time, the film shows from time to time a parallel dimension that leads us to reflect on the ancient origins of Europe, on knowledge only apparently forgotten, and on ancient symbols that are connected to the invisible traditions of all the continents.
On this path, the five protagonists follow the myth of Rama in their search for the Grail, following the traces of the megalithic places of Piedmont. The grand finale of the film reveals if they succeed in finding Rama or if theirs was only a dream.


The Locations of the Film

The filming was done in Australia, in Brittany, in New York, in Geneva, in Arizona, in Turin and in the valleys of Piedmont, the Susa Valley and the Valley of Lanzo.