Unanimously acclaimed as the stand-out film of the 2010 Cannes Directors' Fortnight', 'Le Quattro Volte' is slow Italian art cinema at its best.
An old shepherd lives his last days in a quiet medieval village perched high on the hills of Calabria, at the southernmost tip of Italy. He herds goats under skies that most villagers have deserted long ago. He is sick, but believes that he can find his medicine in the dust he collects on the church floor, which he drinks in his water every day. A new goat kid is born. We follow its first few tentative steps, its first games, until it gains strength and goes to pasture. Nearby, a majestic tree stirs in the mountain breeze and slowly changes through the seasons, until transformed into fuel through the ancestral work of the local Calabrian charcoal makers.
A beautiful and poetic vision of the revolving cycles of life and nature in the unbroken traditions of a timeless place, 'Le Quattro Volte' appears as the metaphor of a soul that moves through four successive states of being.
★★★★ "Stunningly photographed" - David Parkinson, Empire
★★★★ "A precise, subtle and masterful example of art film from Italy" - Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
★★★★★ "A wonderful film about life, the universe and everything" - Trevor Johnston, Time Out
U
89 minutes
2011
European, Drama
Italy
Italian
English
New Wave Films