“Gavino Ledda's autobiography Padre, Padrone, the story of a shepherd boy from the backwaters of Sardinia who molded himself into a prominent linguistics scholar, is a tale with virtually no middle ground. Gavino's boots are in the mud. His head is in the cosmos of infinite possibilities. But his evolution is internalized. It remained for the Taviani brothers, two filmmakers working as a single unit, to create a format that bridges the distance. The Tavianis have...succeeded in revivifying the national postwar cinema that cast a fresh eye on the life of the lower classes. If Ermanno Olmi can be said to have inherited Vittorio De Sica's mantle and his tradition of compassion, then the Tavianis can lay claim to Roberto Rossellini's sterner eye and his more adventurous forms.... Gavino's life is both idiosyncratic and universal. His story expands from harsh particulars to the common experience of anyone who has ever wished to break out of a deprived background. Padre, Padrone (Father, Master), while remaining true to the personal history of Gavino and his efforts to free himself from his father's domination, develops also as the basic 20th-century fable of escaping from the Third World's circle of poverty.” Tom Allen, Village Voice