Titanus. Director Vittorio De Seta; Screenplay Vera Gherarducci, Vittorio De Seta; Camera Vittorio De Seta; Music Valentino Bucchi
Michele Cossu
Peppeddu Cuccu
Vittorina Pisano
Fine initial effort by young Italian filmmaker Vittorio De Seta, Orgosolo is a pic which while closely bordering on the documentary nevertheless has enough story elements to hold audience attention.
Plot tells of vain efforts of a Sardinian shepherd to escape from his fate. He is unjustly involved in a theft and murder episode, with the police hunting him and his flock of sheep over hill and valley. Animals die and the shepherd, already partly resigned, accompanies his brother to the village where they lived. Then he takes to the hills again, where circumstances now force him to steal others' sheep and become what to the outside world is merely a 'bandit.'
It's a director's picture all the way, and a brilliant start for De Seta who, though he doesn't entirely attain the stature of a Robert Flaherty, hits the mark with his pure treatment of elemental themes of man and nature. His choice and direction of the Sardinian back country smacks of the uncanny, and the craggy rock-hewn face of Michele Cossu, as the shepherd, is unforgettable.
The only concession to realism is that the characters speak Italian, not the original local argot. Pace is keyed to setting and people, slow and not overly talkative.
(B&W) Extract of a review from 1961. Running time: 98 MIN.
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