‘Il Vestito del
Prete’ (ovvero ‘Dello Spirito Santo’)
‘The Priest’s Suit’ (or ‘Of the Holy
Ghost’)
A short movie
situated in Corsano by Vincenzo De Masi.
‘Il Vestito del Prete’ tells the story of Don Vincenzo, a priest of a little town in Salento (South of Italy) after the Second World War. He lives his spirituality in a conflictive way, he believes in God, the word of Christ and what He can teach us but he doesn’t believe in the institution of the church. Every Sunday Don Vincenzo tries to convince his parochials by preaching his convictions. This seems to be very difficult because in those hard times people tend to seek consolation in church.
Don Vincenzo is in permanent state of
anxiousness and finds himself surrounded by people who doesn’t
trust him, by his superiors who don’t like his attitude and by
the mayor who considers him a real menace and tries to get him
out of the village as soon as possible.
‘Se Dio Vuole’
‘If God is
Willing’
‘Se Dio Vuole’
is a mental reconstruction of a tragic story which happened in
the South of Italy where many immigrants came to find a better
life but found exploitation and sometimes death.
The film is a
research about image and photography. ‘Se Dio Vuole’ has
only one dialogue, the rest is a composition of images, edited
in sequences accompanied by sound. The aim was to create a
product based on the impact of images on music (and vice versa),
and on the impact of the sun on the characters.
‘Se Dio Vuole’ has been shot in the South of Salento; the countryside between Corsano and Alessano, the coast of Novaglie and the farms around Moricano Di Leuca. Most of the actors where non-professionals who gave the best of themselves in difficult scenes, roles, locations and situations. Thanks to their collaboration and goodness it has been possible to make this film.
‘Del Figlio’
‘Of the Son’
‘Del Figlio’
tells the story of the relationship between father and son,
between man and hunger and between man and woman during the
difficult cultural situation in Salento after the 2nd World War.
Nzini and Lucia decide
to raise a family. We find them many years later with their
little boy Cesarino. His birth has pushed courageous Nzini to
buy a piece of land so he’d be independent of landowners and
exploiters. In this story religion has a marginal and material
role, what matters is the land and the sweat poured by
cultivating it. The last pay-off and the terrible dry climate
which makes it impossible to grow anything, force Nzini to find
another solution to make money. Salt gaining, a crime pursued
and punished by law, sometimes even with death, seems to be his
only way out and Nzini decides to meet an old woman, expert, who
can teach him. In the meanwhile, the
CREDITOR, known as ‘the American’ passes by his house to
fetch ‘his’ money. He only finds Lucia and rapes her. Nzini,
just in time to see what’s happening, turns outrageous. He beats
up the American, who escapes in the end, threatening Nzini to
ruin him together with his son Cesarino.
Here the dream turns into a nightmare. The mother turns crazy because of the shock, isolates herself and doesn’t answer anymore, the father is hopeless and doesn’t find anyway out. The only one who acts is the son, facing this desperate situation in an adult like way. Thanks to his ‘instinctive courage’ he’s able to find a solution to bring back the peace and happiness in his family.
The scenario is based
on stories told by my grandparents and on childhood memories. A
child who listens to stories of war, hate, love and hunger who
recreates them by using his own fantasy and his vision on the
reality of those times.
The photography, in
reddish tonalities, tries to evoke ancient prints of pelicule.
Nearly the whole film is shot by sunset, searching the union of
the sky and the earth. The life of the poor had one unique
colour: red, like the earth of Salento and the blood shed by the
struggle to obtain a small piece of land.
In some scenes, for example when the priest
speaks, you can see a photography based on television. The
priest represents the only ‘media’ of that period. The farmers,
most of them illiterate, used to believe the priest as we do
nowadays the television. In other scenes this same technique is
used to create more realistic images, evoking documentary.
‘Del Figlio’, ‘Il
vestito del prete’ and ‘Nero’ (‘Black’) build a trilogy about
religion and popular beliefs.
Vincenzo De Masi
(Tricase 1975) studied at the University of Bologna, D.A.M.S., department of
Cinema and at the Civic School of Cinema and Television in Milano. He
specialised in sound and videotecnics. He worked as director of photography,
cameraman and sound engineer for various projects. Director of the
documentaries: Clima Secco (Dry Climate, 1994), La Voce del Mare in Inverno (The
Voice of the Sea in Winter,1999), La Devozine per Santa Marina (The devotion of
Saint Marina, 2003). Director of: Amanita (1997), I Volti del Salento (The Faces
of Salento, 1998), Se Dio Vuole (2001), Del Figlio (2002), Il vestito del Prete
(2003), Nero (2004), Amen (2006), L'aurora (2006), Kronos (2007).
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1.Cinema Giapponese
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2.Bande musicali
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3.Nuotare
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•www.labottegaproduzioni.com
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•www.enricoconiglio.com
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Press: Lucia Lombardi, Festival of Cinema of Bellaria (30th May-2nd June 2004)
“Del Figlio is a very poetic short movie and shows the desire of the poor to fight against a strong social law. It is a story where popular beliefs, dream and imagination melt together. A hot light is present during the whole movie, giving us a nice warm Mediterranean atmosphere.”
