Life Is Life

There is an old shepherd in Sardinia. Where he lives is near the coast and a large tourism development is planned for the area. Every other landowner around has sold; only he has not. The company offers him a higher figure each time and he refuses. He does not explain why. The executive the company sends arrives in the area and is expected to close the matter. She begins talking with the shepherd and understands that it is not about money. Riccardo Milani directs. Virginia Raffaele, Aldo Baglio and Diego Abatantuono are in the cast; Giuseppe Ignazio Loi plays the shepherd. The region where it was shot is inside the narrative; the difference between the interior of Sardinia and the coast is shown directly. The matter it works at is what ownership means; for the shepherd the land is not an asset but the place he lives. The film does not condemn tourism outright; the young people of the area and their hope of work are in the narrative too. The register lies between comedy and drama, a combination common in mainstream Italian cinema. The man playing the old shepherd is not a professional actor, and that choice is the film's most concrete side. Its limit is the resolution; the film moves to a conciliatory place at the end. Who it is for: viewers who like Italian provincial comedy and mainstream films on social subjects. Who it is not for: it is predictable, the humour is local, and some characters are formulaic.