Padre Padrone

Gavino is six and sitting in class. His father comes into the room and takes him; the boy will herd sheep. That is the rule in Sardinia: a son is his father's labour. Gavino spends years alone on the mountain. He cannot read or write, has nobody to talk to, and his father beats him at every disobedience. At twenty he goes into the army. There he sleeps in a room with other people for the first time. A friend teaches him to read. Gavino sits examinations and starts learning languages. Then he returns to the village and stands in front of his father. Paolo and Vittorio Taviani write and direct. Saverio Marconi plays Gavino and Omero Antonutti his father. It is an Italian production. The source is Gavino Ledda's own book; Ledda did learn to read late and became a linguist afterwards. The film won the Palme d'Or and the FIPRESCI prize at the Cannes Film Festival; a jury giving both to one film was argued over at the time. It was shot on 16 mm for television and moved to cinemas later. Gavino Ledda himself appears at the opening and hands the actor his father's stick. The matter it treats is language; the ability to speak is shown as a power and the father's hold rests on it. The sound design works inside the narrative; the sounds of the mountain and interior speech overlap. Its limit is the watching; the violence is direct, the register hard and some scenes uncomfortable. Who it is for: viewers who like Italian cinema and true life stories. Who it is not for: the subject is heavy, the form demanding, and the ending cold.