Le Quattro Volte

Drama that chronicles the "earthly transit and material transmutation" of an old man, a young goat, a tree and a batch of charcoal.

"A rugged valley in Italy’s mountainous region of Calabria is the setting for this take on a way of life as old as the elements. Michelangelo Frammartino’s ode to the cycles of nature applies a wryly detached ‘documentary’ eye to what is in fact a meticulously staged drama – in which some of the principal actors are mineral, vegetable and animal. Here humanity is no longer at the centre of the universe, simply part of its mysterious process: we see a mighty tree accorded more ceremony in death than a superstitious old man." (NZ International Film Festival 2011)

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