The successor

Italy | 2015 | 52’ | Feature documentary

A moral journey through guilt, responsibility, and the possibility of redemption. Vito Alfieri Fontana is an engineer and former owner of Tecnovar, an Apulian company specialized in the design and sale of anti-personnel landmines. 

After a profound existential crisis, Fontana begins to question his life, his work, and his relationship with his father - a charismatic and imposing figure whose legacy shaped both the company and his destiny. The burden of succession clashes with an intimate need to stop the production of weapons. One question haunts him: how many victims were caused by Tecnovar’s mines? 

The answer leads him on an unsettling yet necessary journey from Italy to Bosnia and Herzegovina, where demining teams are still clearing fields decades after the war. In the tension between duty and conscience, the film follows a man seeking redemption - fully aware that the moral balance between good and evil may never return to neutral. 

The successor is an intimate portrait and a political reflection, a film that confronts the invisible aftermath of war and the long shadow cast by industrial responsibility.

Directed by  Mattia Epifani

Written by Mattia Epifani, Francesco Lefons

Director of Photography Giorgio Giannoccaro

Editing Mattia Soranzo

Music Gabriele Panico

Sound Gianlugi Gallo

Unit production manager Emanuele De Giorgi

Featuring Vito Alfieri Fontana, Nijaz Memić, Senaid Abdihodeic, Rarija Besic

Executive producer Davide Barletti

A production by Fluid Produzioni, Apulia Film Commission

Supported by Apulia Film Commission,  Dipartimento della Gioventù e del Servizio Civile Nazionale, ARCI Lecce

Festivals & awards

Torino Film Festival (2015)

Cipputi award

IDFA – International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (2015)

IDFA Competition for Mid-Length Documentary

Hot Docs – Canadian International Documentary Festival (2016)

The Pursuit of Happiness

Slamdance Film Festival Göteborg Film Festival (2016)

Beyonde

Göteborg Film Festival (2016)

Italy in focus

Cinema Verité – Iran International Documentary Film Festival (2016)

International Competition

Visioni Italiane - Officinema (2016)

Special Award for Historical Communication and Documentation of the Present, Special Visioni Doc Award

Euganea Film Festival (2016)

Best International Documentary Award

Ischia Film Festival (2016)

Special Mention Location Negata