Vittorio de Seta: The Lost World
A look at southern Italy in the 1950s

10 short films made by Vittorio De Seta between 1954 and 1959 in southern Italy. True testimonies of the past, these exceptional works produced with few means place the director between the documentary filmmaking of Robert Flaherty and the modern anthropological cinema of Jean Rouch. Whether peasants, miners, fishermen or shepherds, Vittorio De Seta agrees to capture the hard work of ancestral trades with lyricism and to the rhythm of popular songs.

The Time of the Swordfish (1954 – Colors – 10 mins)
When the fine weather returns, the men go swordfish fishing in the Strait of Messina...

Islands of Fire (1954 – Colors – 9 mins)
To the north of Sicily, Stromboli and the Aeolian Islands rise above the sea, threatening human life...

Soufrière (1955 – Colors – 9 mn)
The center of Sicily is full of sulfur mines. An invisible tragedy is playing out in the bowels of the earth...

Easter in Sicily (1956 – Colors – 8 mins)
At Easter, the death and resurrection of Christ are re-enacted in the villages around Messina, Caltanissetta and Enna…

Peasants of the sea (1956 – Colors – 9 mn)
Off the Sicilian coast, fishermen await the tuna which, for millennia, has followed the same route...

Golden Parable (1955 – Colors – 9 mn)
The harvest in inner Sicily. Under overwhelming heat, we finally reap the fruits of a year of hard work...

Fishing Boats (1958 – Colors – 10 mins)
Fishermen brave the waves between Sicily and Africa. In the event of a storm, they take shelter on the island of Lampedusa…

Shepherds of Orgosolo (1958 – Colors – 10 mn)
On Mount Orgosolo, in Sardinia, rare shepherds guide their flocks in a harsh climate...

A day in Barbagie (1958 – Colors – 9 mn)
The shepherds left with their herds, the women worked in the village and took care of the wood, the fields and the bread...

The Forgotten (1959 – Colors – 17 mins)
In Calabria, the mountain road comes to an abrupt end: you have to walk 15 kilometers to get to Alessandria del Carretto. When winter is over, the village comes back to life on the occasion of the "Fir Festival", an ancestral pagan tradition...

"DE SETA IS AN ANTHROPOLOGIST WHO SPEAKS WITH THE VOICE OF A POET." MARTIN SCORSESE

VITTORIO DE SETA: THE LOST WORLD
(1954/59 – Colors – 101 mins)

SUPPLEMENTS *

. INTERVIEW WITH VITTORIO DE SETA (18 mins)
In this exclusive interview, Vittorio De Seta talks about the conception of his films, his editing and sound work and talks about his vision of a peasant world today.

Released September 22, 2010