A film about the seaside resorts that dot the Adriatic coast of Italy, from Lignano in the far north down to Rimini, and the mostly invisible labour required to keep them running – from preparation before the season begins through to the season itself.

It’s visually very distinct: mostly static wide shots, sparsely composed, that tend to focus wordlessly on a people performing a single task. They often linger for so long that the activity becomes mesmerising. It’s not voyeuristic, an intrusion into something private; it’s more that the lens is forcing you to focus on something, happening out in the open, that your vision might otherwise have thoughtlessly passed over.

The tasks are extremely varied, from the obviously resort-related – cleaning swimming pools or repairing umbrellas – through to hawking sun hats, controlling the light show at a DJ set, and clambering inside a big daft bird costume to entertain a crowd of kids.

It’s hard to ignore the fact that many of these jobs are difficult and, being seasonal, pretty precarious too. The film makes that explicit when it covers a protest by the USB trade union demanding better wages, conditions, and job security.

I’ve been a seasonal worker for over ten years now. I’m fed up with illegal contracts, with semi-legal contracts, with being paid half under the counter, with being downgraded… we are fed up with starvation wages, and with these platitudes about seasonal workers!