28/01/2020 - A story of rebellion and rebirth set among the olive trees and industrial landscapes of Puglia. Selected in the Panorama section of the 70th Berlinale

Yile Yara Vianello and Feliciana Sibilano in Semina il vento

21-year-old Nica abandons her agronomy studies and returns home, in her village near Taranto, after three years away. There, she finds her father deep in debt, a polluted and devastated land, and olive trees destroyed by a parasite. Everyone seems to have given up in the face of an ecological disaster of immense scale, and all her father wants to do is cut down the olive trees so that he can make money. Nica fights with all her might to save a few ancient trees, but the pollution has also contaminated people's minds and she will have to face unexpected obstacles. Sow The Wind [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Danilo Caputo
film profile], the second film from Danilo Caputo after his brilliant 2014 debut Late Season [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], tells a story of rebellion and rebirth set among the olive trees and industrial landscapes of Puglia.

Shooting for the film lasted 5 weeks, between Taranto and its province (San Marzano di San Giuseppe, Grottaglie, Monteiasi and Statte). The cast includes Yile Yara Vianello (the young actress seen in Alice Rohrwacher’s Corpo celeste [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Alice Rohrwacher
film profile]) Caterina Valente, Espedito Chionna and Feliciana Sibilano. The film’s photography is by Christos Karamanis and it will be edited by Sylvie Gadmer; the set design is by Federica Bologna, the costumes by Angela Tomasicchio, and the score by Valerio Camporini Faggioni. The film’s script, written by the director together with Milena Magnani, was selected at the eigth edition of the Apulia Film Forum organised by the Apulia Film Commission (Vieste, 2017).

Co-produced by Paolo Benzi of Okta Film with Rai Cinema for Italy, by Jacques Bidou and Marianne Dumoulin of JBA Production for France, and by Konstantina Stavrianou and Rena Vougioukalou of Graal for Greece, Sow The Wind has obtained support from the Apulia Film Fund of the Puglia region (€157,714) and from the Apulia Film Commission. The film also received support from the Support fund for the development of film coproductions between Italy and France, of the Ministero dei Beni e della Attività Culturali e del Turismo (MIBACT) and the French Centre National de la Cinématographie (CNC), as well as contribution from the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities for the production of works by young authors, support from Eurimages, and from the fund of the European Council for the co-production and distribution of European films. The French release is handled by Pyramide Distribution, while Pyramide International will be handling international sales.

(Translated from Italian)