IL SEGRETO DEL BOSCO VECCHIO - THE SECRET OF THE OLD FOREST

by Ermanno Olmi
134’, Italy, 1993

Administrator, for his grandson Benvenuto, of the land that comprises the Bosco Vecchio (Old Forest), the retired colonel Sebastiano Procolo (Paolo Villaggio) is ready to do anything to possess the area. Moved by greed, the old military man tries to kill the boy in order to become the sole owner of the forest. But nature plays its hand and his attempts fail. Filmed in the area of the Dolomites between Auronzo and the Passo Tre Croci, and based on a story by the young Dino Buzzati, this enchanted fairytale becomes a fable in which not only do the animals (including the insects) speak, but so do the shadows and the wind. This fable is also a Christian and ecologist’s parable about respect for others and for nature, and about power and greed.

 

	Ermanno Olmi Born in Bergamo in 1931, he earned a place among the greats of Italian cinema with his Palme d’Or at the Cannes Festival for L’albero degli zoccoli, the first in a long series of prestigious international awards. In the 1980s he moved to the Altopiano of Asiago where he still lives in a house on the edge of the woods.