SURFARARA
Vittorio De Seta / Italy / 1955 / 10 min / Colour
At dawn, the miners on the morning shift walk silently in single file toward the sulfur mine, in the barren heart of the Sicilian landscape. When they take the place of their colleagues on the previous shift, a long, tiring day of works awaits them, immersed in the obscurity of the underground. In silence, the camera follows the workers, capturing the darkness of the tunnels, the sound of collapses and of jackhammers, the puffs of the sulfur, and the miners' haunting songs, intoned to boost their courage, as though awaiting the arrival of the "invisible tragedy".
Vittorio De Seta
Born in Palermo in 1923, he began studying architecture and then became assistant director to Mario Chiari and Jean-Paul Le Chanois. In the 1950s he made documentaries set mainly in Sicily, Sardinia and Calabria. Isole di fuoco was awarded a prize at the 1955 Cannes Festival. His first feature film, Banditi a Orgosolo, won the award for best debut film at the Venice Film Festival in 1961. His final work, Lettere dal Sahara, was screened out of competition in 2006 at the same festival.
Credits
Cinematography Vittorio De SetaEditing Vittorio De SetaProducer Vittorio De SetaProduction company Vittorio De Seta
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