Mille anni

A Thousand Years
by Ermanno Olmi
15’, Italy, 1995

“The Abruzzo,” commented Olmi “is a region where nature has been more respected than in others. The people of this land have learned to coexist almost as if in a bond of equal dignity between Man and the other inhabitants: the pastures, the forests, and the rivers. Now this land, as it is and as it must have been long ago, to our eyes as citizens of “advanced society”, seems to emerge from the past to surprise and admonish us.” The thousand years of the title are those of one of the most ancient and monumental trees of the Apennine range: a beech in the form of a candelabra, with a circumference of 5,70 metres, still existing in the woods of Sant’Antonio, in the municipality of Pescocostanzo. Other footage was shot in the municipalities of Roccaraso, Rocca di Calascio, Santo Stefano di Sessanio, and in the Parco Nazionale della Majella, officially opened on June 5, 1995. Presented in the same year outside regular programming at the XXXVI Festival dei Popoli in Florence, the following year this short feature won the prestigious Golden Kompass award in Berlin.