In the aftermath of World War II a community of workers and peasants reunites in the midst of ruins and tries to invent new relationships in work and in daily life.
This second and central part of the Huillet and Straub’s Vittorini trilogy draws on the ‘characters, constellations and text’ of the author’s experimental Marxist and choral novel
The Women of Messina. Twelve men and women of all ages and walks of life come together in the aftermath of World War II, when Italy regained its national and territorial unity. They make up a primitive community of workers and peasants that tries to erase not just the memory of the war but also the misfortune of the world, and to protect themselves against violence, misery, and fear. These working class men and women reunite in the midst of ruins and try to invent new relationships in their work and daily life. The group keeps a ‘register’, a kind of newspaper... as if to follow the proceedings of an investigation or a trial. The text has the dimension of a popular and choral work mirroring the collective reconstruction undertaken by the characters. The texts are recited from memory or read out loud by non-professional actors who are placed in relation to the natural scenery of the forest of the Buti region in Tuscany.
Workers, Peasants will be shown on a new 35mm print.
Operai, contadini,
Workers, Peasants, Dirs: Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet, Italy/France, 2001, 35mm/Digital, 123 mins., Italian with English subtitles.
With the kind support of the Istituto Italiano di Cultura – London
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