An ill and elderly goatherd, a kid, a majestic fir, and a smoking charcoal kiln are the four protagonists of a captivating and poetic vision of the cycles of life and nature. Set in a Calabrian village, the visual narrative, bereft of dialogue and straddling the line between drama and documentary, received the Europa Cinemas Award at this year’s Cannes festival.
An ill and elderly goatherd treats his hacking cough by drinking water mixed with dust swept up from the church floor. A newborn kid in his herd rises up on its feet and begins to fight for its place in the world. A majestic fir tree, which human beings have appropriated, looks calmly down on the roofs of the village houses. Its grandeur, however, is destroyed when workers come to use its chopped limbs to make charcoal. Man, animal, vegetation, and dust are the four protagonists of stories cyclically linked in one of the most remarkable pictures at this year’s Cannes festival. The visual narrative, bereft of dialogue and straddling the line between drama and documentary, flows as smoothly as life in the Calabrian village where it takes place. In his captivatingly poetic vision of incessant life cycles, Frammartino searches for a way to capture the essence hidden beneath the surface of creatures, things, and events of all kinds. Ermanno Olmi and Robert Bresson resonate in the work of a director who claims that he wanted his narrative "to return dignity to things which generally remain in the background.”
88 min / Color, 35 mm
Director Michelangelo Frammartino
/ Screenplay Michelangelo Frammartino
/ Dir. of Photography Andrea Locatelli
/ Editor Benni Atria, Maurizio Grillo
/ Producer Marta Donzelli, Gregorio Paonessa, Susanne Marian, Philippe Bober, Gabriella Manfrè, Elda Guidinetti, Andres Pfaeffli
/ Production Vivo film, Essential Filmproduktion, Invisibile Film, Ventura film
/ Cast Giuseppe Fuda, Bruno Timpano, Nazareno Timpano
/ Contact Coproduction Office
Michelangelo Frammartino (b. 1968, Milan, Italy) created short films, music videos, and other artistic projects while studying architecture, including the video installations The Eye and the Spirit and The House of the Sleeping Beauties. He teaches cinematography at ENFAP Lombardia, as well as courses in film language and scriptwriting at the Cinelife education center. Since 2005, he has also taught at the University of Bergamo. In 2003 he directed his first feature film, The Gift (Il dono), which received multiple awards at international festivals. Le quattro volte was presented in the Quinzaine des réalisateurs section this year at Cannes.
Coproduction Office
24, rue Lamartine, 750 09, Paris
France
Phone: +33 156 026 000
Fax: +33 156 026 001
E-mail: [email protected]
Michelangelo Frammartino
Film Director
Céline Lin
Sales Agent
First-hand brews throughout the year.
Be among the first to learn about upcoming events and other news. We only send the newsletter when we have something to say.
