Grafting
17th september 2022
5:35 PM
Italian Contest
Short Synopsys:
The story of a silent but formidable battle to recover the centuries-old chestnut groves and their tradition, in Viola Castello. In the Piedmontese village, only the elderly chestnut women remain. Their memory recalls a past where life revolved around chestnut trees, a legacy that has now almost completely disappeared. Ettore, filmed by his son Sandro, changes the valley’s destiny through grafting: he gives the existing plants new life, changing a history that seemed already over. Grafting is also human: the valley is repopulated, a new future for new generations. Through a tradition that has never disappeared, grafting brings the chestnut groves of Viola Castello back to life.
COPERTINA
Directed by: Sandro Bozzolo
Production: UNA Film
Producer: Enrica Viola
Editing: Paolo Favaro, Marco Lo Baido
Cinematography: Luciano Federici
Running time: 80
Country: Italy
Year: 2022
Contacts: UNA Film info@unafilm.it
Director’s statement:
This film is built upon a life-long archive that I unknowingly started at 15. Thanks to this inside-gaze, we see the struggle for woods’ recovery and time passing through 8mm to HD, 4K, drones, fish eyes. A unique personal and visual journey for self-discovery, about the human feeling of searching for one’s path and true calling. A father-son relationship mirrors Mother Nature and humans, how the two can coexist. A Tale of Grafting is an alternative; an alternative to Nature’s narrative, to contemporary life-style, to male representation, never shying away from Ettore’s tears in front of his beloved chestnut trees, of his sons, of t the past and when meeting new people ready to engage with him in the battle for chestnuts.