Workers, Peasants

(Operai, Contadini)

featuring

Angela Nugara, Giacinto Di Pascoli, Giampaolo Cassarino, Enrico Achilli,

A roster of nonprofessional actors, mainly ordinary workers and farmers from Tuscany’s Pisa province, bring to life a famed Marxist novella (Women of Messina) in Straub-Huillet’s stunning treatise on community and opposition. In the midst of a verdant Italian forest, as the wind lifts the tree leaves and water flows in the nearby brook, these contemporary Italians recite the struggles of a group of peasants and workers during World War II. What Italo Calvino referred to as a “choral narrative” of utopia and unity emerges, one drawn from the past, yet echoing still today.

Jason Sanders
FILM DETAILS 
Screenwriter
  • Jean-Marie Straub
  • Danièle Huillet
Based On
  • based on Women of Messina by Elio Vittorini

Cinematographer
  • Renato Berta
Language
  • Italian
  • with English subtitles
Print Info
  • Color
  • 35mm
  • 123 mins
Preceded By

Incantati

Jean-Marie Straub, Danièle Huillet, Italy, France, Germany, 2002

Recently rediscovered, Incantati is an alternate ending to Straub-Huillet’s 2003 work Umiliati, also based on Vittorini’s book.

FILM DETAILS 
Language
  • Italian
  • with English subtitles
Print Info
  • Color
  • DCP
  • 5 mins