Vittorio De Seta

Banditi a Orgosolo (Bandits of Orgosolo) is a 1960 Italian film drama directed by Vittorio De Seta. The film stars Vittorina Pisano. De Seta won an Award for the film at the Venice Film Festival. (wikipedia.org)

Short story about shepherds.

Jacques Perrin was awarded Best Actor at the 1966 Venice Film Festival for his gripping portrayal of a young writer's descent into madness. Alienated, neurotic, and plagued by guilt, Perrin retreats from reality, loses interest in work, and comes to the brink of suicide before being sent to an asylum for shock therapy. Escaping from the asylum, Perrin returns to his boyhood home, where he learns the reasons for his present mental state. (allmovie)

Fishing Boats sheds light on the fisheries between Sicily and Africa. De Seta shows how the fishermen put out to sea in all weathers to scrape a living. If a storm breaks, the fishing boats seek refuge on the island of Lampedusa. The sober but effective use of the surrounding sounds drowns the fishermen's voices and gives the film an extra dramatic dimension. (IDFFA)

Against the background of flocks of sheep at pasture, mules walking down unpaved roads, tractors in the fields, and isolated figures in a deserted village, a caption explains that "Barbagia is a vast region in Sardinia; Orgosolo, Oliena and Manoiana are villages of shepherds and the men spend most of the year far away, with their flocks. This is why the houses and the children are entrusted to the women, who cut the wood, work the fields and prepare bread, shepherds' bread." (Turin Film Festival)

Film shows the director's sense for detail and visual beauty, which turn a day of swordfish hunting into a dramatic poem. A realistic depiction of the dull waiting in the Strait of Messina, and of the sudden struggle to reel in the fish. A portrait of man versus animal - ordinary and majestic at once.

Film is another portrait of the life of fishermen, and evidence of the director's faith in Man's ability to transcend himself by sheer force of will. A film about brotherhood in labor, about combined efforts, the oars striking the water in a rhythmic motion, the laying of nets, and lining up the boats for the tuna hunt.

The first light of dawn. The sound of a boat and the screech of birds fill the wide expanse of sea. Black rocks emerge from the water, the "sciara" - the volcanic scoria - of Stromboli, the underwater sulfurous emanations, the layers of reddish rock eroded by the sea. The roar of the volcano can be heard, the flames and the liquid lava are thrown skyward. As nature unleashes itself, the fishermen row toward the shore, the sheep stray and the women return home. (MUBI)

A short documentary set in Alessandria del Carretto, a small town in the province of Cosenza.

Documentary about the hard life and struggles of the miners in the sulphur mines of Caltanissetta. (bfi)

Deals with a passion-play performed in San Fratello near Messina. (bfi)

Documentary on the harvest in Sicilia. (bfi)

Tells the story of a teacher who is given a class of delinquents and drop-outs, of how he engages their interest and how his efforts are ultimately in vain because he is forced to work with these 'failures' on an examination orientated syllabus. Intended for teacher training. (bfi)

The story tells the story of Assane, a Senegalese boy who is shipwrecked as an illegal immigrant in Lampedusa. Assane continues his journey finding work in the black market in Florence and then in Turin. After finding a regular job in a factory and obtaining a residence permit, he realizes that the only way to integrate himself is to give up his culture. (Wikipedia)

The first part concerns swordfish fishing. Then it moves on to the Aeolian Islands devastated by mass tourism and building speculation. The third stage is divided in two: on one side the sulphur mines, in the past a source of sustenance for thousands of Sicilians and today almost completely closed; on the other side, today's celebrations for Easter as opposed to the ceremonies of the fifties. The fourth episode closes with the rite of wheat harvesting and tuna fishing in Favignana

In the ultramodern city, the border between capitalism and communist regime, where on the horizon you can only see skyscrapers, the port is full of boats full of refugees, the sheds are overcrowded and volunteers bring them rice and vegetables in buckets.

Report on a region in southern Italy, described as a land still inhabited by those who "live as at the beginning of time" and where modernisation has been "the great disappointed hope".