“Pure unknown” is how the nameless corpses that arrive at the underground laboratories at Labanof, (Laboratory of Forensic Anthropology and Dentistry) in Milan each year are defined in anthropological jargon. Unidentified bodies or bone fragments that have been discovered then sealed in zinc containers.

The researchers at Labanof have set themselves the task of weaving together the threads of their stories, beginning with the bone fragments, so that none of these lives is lost forever; be it a murdered prostitute buried in the 1990s, a martyr who died in the 15th century, or an African refugee swallowed up and then spat out by the Mediterranean Sea in 2015.

Sometimes the stories of the remains have an ending, a name. They find a home, a family waiting for them. In each case, even when the narrative thread of the story doesn’t lead to an identity, the researchers at Labanof provide each individual with their own uniqueness. They are all motivated by the same question, “How will Europe talk about the way we treat “the last” of our dead in the future?” The film PURE UNKNOWN seeks to answer this question.