Pizzicata

Recently released in the US distribution, got a review this summer in the The New York Times, and will shown soon be playing at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, this 1997 movie had a hard time finding distribution even in its native Italy. Shown at a festival in 1998 of locally-produced films that for some reason or other weren't shown in commercial theaters, it sort of came out of the closet this year as a re-discovered hiding gem. Beautifully photographed in southern Apulia in a region called Salento under groves of majestic olive trees, it shows a peasant agrarian life as a family adapts to include an italo-american pilot shot down from a WWII plane. The pilot speaks the native dialect and camouflages himself as a cousin. Aside from the photography, the music anthology of local folk songs and instrumental is excellent. The director took great pains to keep the authenticity of local dialect, music, expressions, farming methods, social structures, and costumes. For these reasons, a very similar film, but filmed on the island of Sardinia, is "Banditi a Orgosolo". I read that his next film, also about Salento, will be "Sangue Vivo".

a deeply evocative film, you'll be mesmerised ... don't hesitate. Love and war in Puglia but, despite Chiara Torelli, the real star is the pizzicata: a compelling rhythmic dance played to drive the devils from a tarantula victim. Only locals (mainly amateur actors, i gather) could convey so much about the region and still maintain its mystery and even melancholy.