original title:
Tartarughe dal becco d'ascia
directed by:
screenplay:
cinematography:
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set design:
costume design:
music:
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distribution:
country:
Italy
year:
1999
film run:
85'
format:
colour
release date:
23/06/2000
This story is set in our time, in winter in a mountain region swept by cold weather and snow, close to the echoes of a nearby war.
A young man who lives with his family in an isolated farm finds a terrified child in the snow. The child is delirious – he is the youngest child of the family living in the neighboring farm, some kilometers away – he talks about a mysterious “foreigner” and about an obscure tragedy just happened.
His arrival unleashes the latent tensions present among the family members; they are exasperated by their life with a soldier in flight who works for them in exchange for board and lodging.
Among lies, jealousy, suffocated hatred and dark omens, the men in the farm decide to face the journey through ice and snow in search for truth.
The young man’s mother, left alone at home with the child, after reading a letter found among the soldier’s belongings, understands where the men’s journey will lead them.
The woman runs after them in a breathless race to reach the men, she tries to avoid the tragedy awaiting them, but she may arrive too late.