Directed by: Taviani brothers
Released: 1977
Run
time: 109 minutes
Classification 15
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The intense and powerful tale of a young, barely literate shepherd boy, who lives under the thumb of his tyrannical and brutal father
A landmark film, directed by the Taviani brothers in 1977, based on an autobiographical book by Gavino Ledda. Starring Omero Antonutti, Fabrizio Forte, Saverio Marconi and Marcella Michelangeli.
At the age of six, Gavino (Fabrizio Forte) is pulled out of school by his father (Omero Antonutti) to work as the impoverished family’s shepherd in the inhospitable mountains of Sardinia, suffering frequent beatings by his father. When a run of bad luck hits the family finances, his father sends him to the Army; thus Gavino sets out on the way to liberation by seeking out the education denied him as a child.
Paolo and Vittorio Taviani were born in Tuscany. The brothers started their careers as journalists, only going into filmmaking in 1962, jointly directing with Joris Ivens the documentary Italy is not a Poor Country. They went on to direct two films with Valentino Orsini. Their first autonomous film was in 1967, The Subversives, and in 1969 they made Under the sign of Scorpio. They continued making films through the 1970s culminating in Padre Padrone, which won the Palme d’Or at Cannes.
