In 1981 Pinochet privatizes almost every water resource in Chile. In the following thirty years the rights for the exploitation of water are transferred to national and multinational companies interested in producing hydroelectric energy. Today Chilean Patagonia is threatened by HidroAysén project, regarding the construction of five big dams on Pascua and Baker rivers. "Lucciole per lanterne", moving between past and present, retraces these events through the history of three women trying to resist against the hydroelectric giant that is about to tread on their land by imposing an idea of progress that does not belong to them. 

The defense of water as a common good, the protection of the environmental heritage, the choices in energy matters: the movie deals with these issues of our present by showing us the consequences of a single development model on the life of people living on the fringes from a geographic and social point of view. Nowadays these people are representing “exceptions, resistances, survivals”.

After scientific studies, Stefano and Mario Martone (born in 1974 and 1974) focus on photography and video making. They realize social and anthropological documentaries in partnership with NGOs and public institutions in Bosnia, South America, Palestine and Lebanon. From 2006 to 2010 they coordinate courses in digital video making in Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon. They are among the authors of the documentary "NAPOLI 24", presented at the Torino Film Festival in 2010.