Vittorio de Seta - Italy in the 50s

De Seta’s CONTADINI DEL MARE tells a story of life and death. Sil­hou­et­ted like unreal shad­ows against the sky at the break of day, Sicil­ian fish­er­men are throw­ing out their nets, stretch­ing them between the boats. A long wait begins. Sud­den­ly, a shout rends the air. Swing­ing into action, the fish­er­men joy­ous­ly sing while haul­ing in their net filled with strug­gling tuna fish. As the sun goes down, they take up their oars and head for home. 

The vol­ca­noes that rise up from the sea above the Aeo­lian Islands are metal­lic blue. The atmos­phere is heavy and charged with energy as the inhab­i­tants go about their daily … read more

With the return of summer, the sword­fish come to lay their eggs in the Strait of Messi­na. While the wash­er­women scrub their laun­dry on the bank, accom­pa­ny­ing their labours with … read more

In the vil­lages of San Fratel­lo, Della and Aidone in Sicily, people cel­e­brate Easter with great devout­ness, with cos­tumed pro­ces­sions retrac­ing the Pas­sion of Christ. This film by Vit­to­rio De … read more

In this film De Seta depicts the harsh exis­tence of herds­men in the moun­tains of Sar­dinia. They squeeze out what they can form the barren land­scape to feed their goats. … read more

A trawler slices through the trou­bled waters in the vast mar­itime area sep­a­rat­ing Sicily from Africa. On board, the fish­er­men are busy sort­ing out and clean­ing the fish, throw­ing out … read more

Against the back­drop of a barren land­scape, coal-miners advance towards the many mines that dot Sicily’s inner land. Crowd­ing into a lift they dis­ap­pear 500 meters under the sur­face of … read more

Orgoso­lo, Oliena and Manci­na are remote vil­lages in the par­tic­u­lar­ly inhos­pitable Sar­din­ian hin­ter­land. The inhab­i­tants make a meagre living prin­ci­pal­ly from pas­toral activ­i­ties. Since the men spend most of their … read more