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Through the story of Emilio, a young carabiniere sent to a Sardinian village for its military training, the director Pietro Sanna gives us a picture of this culture that seems unchanged over the centuries.

Emilio comes from Emilia Romagna (region in the North of Italy, on the Riviera of Adriatic sea), and the only idea that he has of Sardinia is the hot tourist season during the summertime. However, once in Barbagia, the internal region of Sardinia probably the most remote, Emilio will face a totally different reality: bandits, bloodthirsty revenges, fear, psychological pressure, silence, resignation, mistrust.

This movie is about recalling the attention into a reality that is forgotten or even unknown to the rest of Italy. The Barbagia is renowned to be house to bandits, in the real meaning, since always. At the beginning of 1900 the Italian government sent forces to defeat the banditry, with some success, however without rooting out its culture. Because the banditry in Barbagia, in Sardinia, it’s a culture which derives from its anthropological history. Even if nowadays they are not that popular anymore and they are more threatened, some still exist and operate, because it is in their inner soul, in their ancestral instinct, is like a last attempt to preserve the species.

Furthermore, lifestyle changed very little, especially for those who work in the ship farming, where rules and laws keep ancient codes.

It is the nature, which remains hidden into a wild heart and in the harsh attitude that D.H. Laurence in its Sea and Sardinia book despite their black skirt and their white shirts with puffed sleeves sees the Sardinian man “so beautiful and stupendously masculine!”

“He walks with his hands behind the back, slow, straight, and detached. Wonderful untamable haughtiness… How beautiful the virility is when it finds its own expression!…”

Well, I just wanted to provide a small cultural background to suggest a deeper reading of such a society. However, a crime is a crime. Likely are very rare today.

For your information the director is a carabiniere in real life and is sardo as well. He was nominated for Donatello award 2004 as best new director.

Check my review of Ballo a tre passi, and watch the video to see the typical Sardinian costume, nowadays more rarely used.

I have been waiting for this and the following movie for months. I am thrilled. This is my own root region (partially) and I have the privilege to be in and out of the scene.

Sardinia, where its crystal waters are seen with suspects, and its dark remote caves are a shelter. A land of sheep and shepherd; cardoons and cork oaks, basalt and granite; tough orbace and delicate filigree; slanting eyes and black, thick eyebrows; legend and truth; divinities and saints. Land where everything is elusive and stationary at once. Where people talks with the look. Where the sun doesn’t bring smiles, and the light is in the night.

With this peculiar, unique background Salvatore Mereu, young director, brought to life a little masterpiece of colors, feelings, characters, and sceneries. Clearly inspired to the visionary representation of Fellini, sweetly surrealistic, he fulfills our desire of cinema with no expectations.

Divided into 4 chapters, linked to the 4 seasons, he traces a profile of Sardinian life that is naive and sweet. He’s able to bring out the poetry hidden inside its ancestral tight limits. The Spring, the discovery, when the children run toward the sea for the first time, on those interminable dunes of white sand. The summer, the wonder, when the shepherd meets the love among his remote caves. The autumn, the look back, when the young noun comes back to the village for a wedding that could have been hers. The winter, the dignity, when the old man tries to escape from the unavoidable lonely life of the city through the dream and the kindness of a prostitute.

A movie difficult to follow if you need a traditional plot, but art doesn’t need a plot. This is a sweet romantic photo of the hidden poetry of Sardinia.

Since I couldn’t find a trailer, this is a piece of real life from the village where my sister lives, Bortigali (area Il Marghine, province Nuoro, Sardegna) .

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