O fuóco e ò nuósto e l’appicciammo nuje (The fire is ours and we lit it) unfolds as a dense audiovisual collage in which volcanic eruption, civic ritual, and collective identity collapse into one another. Drawing together archival footage from across the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, the film moves between images of Mount Vesuvius violently discharging smoke, ash, and lava, and the chaotic spectacle of New Year celebrations in Naples, where fireworks erupt across streets, rooftops, and apartment balconies with near-apocalyptic intensity. Through montage, these two forms of combustion begin to mirror one another: natural catastrophe and social performance become visually and emotionally inseparable.

The film continually shifts between awe and threat. Buildings tremble beneath volcanic force while densely populated neighbourhoods pulse with self-generated explosions of light and sound. Rather than positioning danger as something external to be feared or controlled, the work suggests a culture that has absorbed proximity to instability into everyday life itself. Fire becomes not only destructive but communal, functioning as spectacle, catharsis, release, and assertion. The title’s collective declaration - 'the fire is ours and we lit it' - transforms eruption into an act of ownership, reclaiming volatility as something culturally inhabited rather than merely endured.

Sound plays a central role within the work’s physical experience. Developed in collaboration with sound designer Matteo Pit, the audio moves dynamically across space, surrounding the viewer with waves of detonations, rumbling pressure, and reverberation. This spatialised soundtrack intensifies the film’s understanding of Naples not simply as a backdrop; it is a work about place as much as event, a place where geological violence, celebration, and belonging exist in continual and inseparable proximity.