• 4.30–6.30 PM
• 03 June 2023
• Cinema Radar

In Puglia, a region in south-eastern Italy, the most serious botanical pandemic of the century is underway: a quarantine bacterium, Xylella Fastidiosa, is killing millions of olive trees. Disrupting landscape, economy and human relations. Il Tempo dei Giganti narrates Giuseppe’s journey to his father’s land, in the Plain of the Monumental Olive Trees, where the epidemic is imminent. He will have to explain to the old farmer how their lives will be disrupted by this invisible bacterium, hitherto unknown in Italy.

Directors

Davide Barletti and Lorenzo Conte are among the founders of the independent collective Fluid Video Crew, with which they made video installations, short films and documentary films from 1995 to 2008. In 2008 they wrote and directed their first fiction feature film Fine Pena Mai, starring Claudio Santamaria and Valentina Cervi. Also in 2008, Davide Barletti directed Radio Egnatia, a documentary in competition at the 26th Turin Film Festival and a special event at the Tirana International Film Festival and Thessaloniki Documentary Festival. In 2009, they participated as author and director in the Fromzero.tv project, the first Italian web platform for documentaries, making several short films set in the earthquake-stricken areas of Abruzzo. In 2009, they made Diario di uno scuro, a story about the Apulian mafia organisation Sacra Corona Unita. The documentary was produced by Italy and France and broadcast on numerous international television channels. In 2010 they directed the documentary film Non c’era nessuna signora a quel tavolo (There was no lady at that table), a biography dedicated to Italy’s first female documentary filmmaker, Cecilia Mangini. In 2011 for RAI they directed Ritratto di Ettore Scola, Argentina 2001-2011, le voci di una rivolta, Il debito della democrazia and Theo Angelopoulos, il poeta del tempo. From 2013 to 2015 they are authors and directors of the three seasons of the TV series Artisti del Gusto for National Geographic Channel, winning the 45th Key Award for the Brand Entertainment Content category. In 2014 Davide Barletti realised with Jacopo Quadri the documentary Il paese dove gli alberi volano, selected at the Venice Film Festival. In 2016 he wrote and directed the short film Vendesi Salento. In 2017 La guerra dei cafoni, the second fiction film by Barletti-Conte, a film adaptation of the homonymous novel by Carlo D’Amicis, was released in cinemas, produced by Amedeo Pagani and Minimum Fax Media. La guerra dei cafoni was nominated for Best Cinematography and Best Editing at the 2017 Nastri d’Argento and Best Non-Original Screenplay at the 2018 David di Donatello Awards. In 2019, Amedeo Pagani’s production company La Luna entrusts the two directors, in collaboration with Carlo D’Amicis, with the task of writing an original screenplay entitled Nella terra dei maghi. In 2019, Davide Barletti is the artistic director of #tu6scuola as part of the Con i Bambini project, funded by the Presidency of the Council of Ministers against juvenile educational poverty, and for the creation of the first interactive game and storytelling platform built with over 300 secondary school students. Lorenzo Conte is currently developing together with Gabriele Gianni the documentary film Sand Roads, an Italian-Australian co-production.

Original Language: Italian
Subtitles: English
Month and Year of Production: 03/2023
Color/Black and White: Color
Camera: Digital 2k
Audio: Dolby 5.1
Country of Production: Italy
Duration: 73 min
Director: Davide Barletti, Lorenzo Conte
Production: Dinamo Film, Fluid Produzioni
Producer: Ivan D’Ambrosio, Davide Barletti
Cast: Ada Martella (Attivista Manu Manu Riforesta!), Alessandra Viola (Giornalista scientifica), Chiara Idrusa Scrimieri (Attivista Salviamo gli ulivi del Salento), Chiara Paladini (Assegnista di Ricerca presso Università degli Studi dell’Aquila e SNF Forschungsmitarbeiterin presso Universität Luzern, fondatrice dell’Azienda Agraria Olio Febo), Daniele Rielli (Giornalista e scrittore), Donato Boscia (Fitopatologo, Dirigente di Ricerca Responsabile della sede di Bari dell’Istituto per la Protezione Sostenibile delle Piante del CNR e Accademico dell’Accademia dei Georgofili), Enzo Marzano (Agricoltore), Fabio Pollice (Professore di Geografia Economico-Politica, Rettore Università del Salento), Francesco Semeraro (Olivicoltore), Franco Nuzzo (Artista), Giovanni Melcarne (Imprenditore olivicolo e oleario salentino, presidente del Consorzio di tutela dell’olio Dop Terra d’Otranto), Giuseppe Semeraro (Olivicoltore), Marco Cattaneo (Direttore di «National Geographic», «Le Scienze» e «Mind»), Maria Saponari (Ricercatrice del Cnr-Ipsp di Bari), Massimo Colizzi (Artista e socio della Società Cooperativa Agricolo Karadrà), Massimo Polidoro (Giornalista, scrittore e segretario nazionale del CICAP), Mimmo Urselli, Orazio Semeraro (Olivicoltore), Pierfederico La Notte (Epidemiologo, Ricercatore presso CNR Istituto per la Protezione Sostenibile delle Piante), Riccardo Valentini (Professore ordinario in Ecologia Forestale presso l’’Università degli studi della Tuscia, Premio Nobel per la pace 2017), Rita Accogli (Funzionario tecnico presso l’Orto botanico dell’Università del Salento), Roberta Bruno (Dottore di ricerca in Scienze Agrarie, Forestali e degli Alimenti), Roberto Gennaio (Naturalista, scrittore, Tecnico Prevenzione Ambiente presso ARPA Puglia Dipartimento di Lecce), Roberto Tramacere, Stefano Cristante (Professore ordinario in Sociologia dei processi culturali e comunicativi presso l’Università del Salento), Stefano Liberti (Giornalista, scrittore e regista), Tiziana Colluto (Giornalista), Vito Lisi (Attivista ecologista).
Photography: Davide Micocci
Editing: Domenico De Orsi
Music / Original Soundtrack: Valerio Daniele