30. Film Festival della Lessinia
Bosco Chiesanuova (Italia)
23 August - 1 September 2024

Italian premiere

The Veneto emigrants that departed by the thousands for Brazil in the last centuries brought to South America their own language, traditions, and faith. From the high plains of the Lessinia and Asiago, and from the mountains of Belluno and Treviso to the territory of Antonio Prado, in the Rio Grande do Sul mountains, this long story of emigration has left recognizable traces. Among these are the capitals, small sacred structures almost always located on the edges of the road, that hold crucifixes or statues of the Virgin Mary or of saints. From the Veneto to the other side of the ocean, one finds not only the same architectural structures, but also the same hopes, prayers, and desires for small, or large, miracles. These descendants of Veneto immigrants in Brazil tell their stories, sometimes in an antiquated, and by now stunted, dialect, and these are compared to those of the people who today live very comfortably in the Veneto mountains, once the land of emigrants. And we discover that ties to traditions of the past can be strong, perhaps even stronger, down there than in the developed Italian northeast. 

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  André Costantin

  Born in 1968, Costantin holds a degree in regional literature and culture from the University of Caxias do Sul. Since 1996, he has worked as a director and documentary filmmaker, devoting himself above all to the theme of historical memory and culture in Brazil. At the Film Festival della Lessinia he presented Eco das montanhas: a viagem da palavra (2008) and Se milagres Desejais (2010).

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  Nivaldo Pereira