The Island of Stories

This is an incredible journey to Sardinia made of short movies and audio documentaries produced on the island over the last several years. The project is a co-production of TBA21—Academy and Fondazione Sardegna Film Commission. Screened at the Ocean Space, the monumental San Lorenzo Church in Venice, this collection of works and testimonies is a veritable choral story that rejects stereotypes and gives space to stories that find their deepest roots in the lives of local communities. Filmmakers Vittoria Soddu, Giorgia Cadeddu, and Francesco Piras will be present at the screenings and will meet the audience.
The screening programme includes Iolanda mi nant de nomini (2021, 30’), an audio documentary by Vittoria Soddu and Giorgia Cadeddu  about Orlanda Sassu (1924—2015), a poet and ecologist that, throughout her life, archived in sound footage the history of her hometown of Guspini and its dialect, a local language she was afraid would be lost to time. Her voice takes us to the places she held dearest: the river, the village, the sea, a cabin built around a century-old juniper on sand dunes in Pistis, her partner and fellow poet Efisio. Iolanda – that’s what everyone called her –gave magnetic tape the power to take her back into time, to memories of her past, and to challenge the future, leaving a testimony we can all now appreciate.
Second in schedule is A casa mia (2016, 20’) by Mario Piredda. The film shows an almost-abandoned fishing village where Lucia, an elderly widow, wears her grieving clothes as dictated by Sardinian tradition: black garments and head cover. Every day, she visits and grooms her husband’s tomb. Peppino, a fisherman and friend of hers, is the only other person living in the village. Every day, he works on maintaining his fishing boat, even though he’s not going fishing anymore. Lucia and Peppino keep each other company in the long winter nights. They are united not only by solitude, but by love they never admitted. Time passes by slowly, the wind blows sand into the village’s deserted alleys, and saltwater eats away houses and walls. One day, Lucia is visited by her daughter, husband and child in tow. The daughter would like Lucia to move in with her, so they could rent the mother’s home to tourists in the summer and improve their finances. Lucia cannot accept the idea: leaving her home, her life, leaving Peppino on his own, leaving Peppino. The daughter insists, though, and Lucia must make a decision.
Ending the programme is Mammarranca (2021, 15’) by Francesco Piras. The two protagonists are Giovanni and Michele. Aged eleven and nine, the two live in a working-class neighbourhood in Sardinia’s main city, Cagliari. Their lives seem to change forever when a scratch-and-win ticket ends up in their hands.

The Island of Stories. A Journey to Sardinia
Ocean Space, Ex Chiesa San Lorenzo, Venezia
h. 18.30-20.30
www.ocean-space.org | www.sardegnafilmcommission.it