Guglielmo Baldassini's pictorial cinema has the mystery of an aura that makes many of his images appear as if they were strange, timeless creatures that have emerged from an underwater seabed. In this 9.5mm film on sardine fishing in Varazze, it will be the backlit shots of the sea, the subjects and landscapes filmed, reminiscent of those of films 'from life', of a vanished Italy, postcard-perfect, picturesque and at the same time truthful. We are at the end of April 1929, on the Ligurian Sea. The fishermen, from the beach, withdraw their nets from the sea. Behind them a small building and some boats in the boathouse. In front of them other fishermen in a rowing boat check that the withdrawal of the nets is taking place correctly. At the end of the operation the rowing boat beaches. They count and divide the sardines. This is the fishing of the sciabica, a trawl net, whose name comes from the Hispanic-Arabic. Ancient Mediterranean traditions caught in Baldassini's film, just like the sardines.