“Catastrophe before dawn” tells the story of the city of L’Aquila on the day it wakes up after the earthquake: the tales of residents, firemen and young people who survived the collapse of the University dormitory are interspersed with intense footage of the “day after” and a collection of old images related to the history of this area, hit by an earthquake once every three hundred years. The 6^th April was a striking day not only for L’Aquila: an entire chapter of this documentary is dedicated to Onna, a village of three hundred and fifty residents that was destroyed by the earthquake that became the symbol of the 2009 tragedy. While the images run we are shown people who lived through that terrible night and the issues that were discussed by the experts after such a shocking event. The physicist Giampaolo Giuliani, for example, maintains that in 2009 he collected undeniable evidence about the imminent earthquake while the Italian Civil Protection, supported by the majority of the experts from the international community, maintained that it was still impossible to foresee an earthquake. “Catastrophe before dawn” is first and foremost a documentary about a tragic and violent experience that no-one will ever forget.