Three steps dancing (first feature)

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Three steps dancing (Ballo a tre passi)

Three steps dancing (Ballo a tre passi)

Three steps dancing (Ballo a tre passi)

original title:

Ballo a tre passi

directed by:

cast:

Caroline Ducey, Yael Abecassis, Massimo Sarchielli, Michele Carboni, Giampaolo Loddo, Pietrina Menneas, Carmine Recano, Daniele Casula, Mauro Frongia, Angelo Botti, Sebastiano Lai, Tonino Fulgheri, Francesco Vedele, Roberta Perra, Francesco Barracca, Domenico Arba, Pietro Arba, Simone Frongia, Lisa Chessa, Agostino Sale, Emiliana Gimelli, Rossella Bergo, Alexandra Brancaccio

screenplay:

editing:

set design:

music:

Giampaolo Mele

production:

distribution:

world sales:

country:

Italy

year:

2003

film run:

107'

format:

35mm - colour

aspect ratio:

1.85:1

sound:

Dolby SR

release date:

19/09/2003

festivals & awards:

Spring
Andrea, Peppeddu, Macangiu, and Istene, are running in the middle of the countryside alongside a lorry, which is their transport to the sea. They run into the middle of the sand, they clamber over the dunes, and finally there it is, stretching out before them, the sea! It’s bigger than the biggest camp site and footfall fields they’ve seen up until now. Two tears run down Andrea’s cheeks, while all the others are struck dumb. For Andrea and the rest, it’s the first time they’ve seen the sea with their own eyes.

Summer
Michele, who the kids met on the road to the cinema, has already arrived in the mountains. For months he takes refuge in a little hut on the top of a mountain ridge. Every evening he milks his herd. Massimo is the only person he sees. These two run a bar on the beach and a hang-gliding club, together with Peppuccia, in a little village by the sea. This is where Michele sees Solveig for the first time, a very young French girl who goes to the hang-gliding club. One hot night he makes love with her, his first time. A few days later, looking out to sea, where a lot of boats are gathered, Michele sees the wings of a hang-glider floating in the sea...

Autumn
We’re at Ziu Predu’s house, an old goat-herd who shares his mountain house with Michele, watching the frantic preparations for the marriage of his granddaughter, Simona. His daughter Francesca is coming back for the occasion, after living as a nun in a Carmela convent for many years. On the day she’s due back, Ziu Predu , dressed in his best suit, goes to meet Francesca with some trepidation in the main village square. He hasn’t seen his daughter since the day she took her vows. In the evening the pre-wedding party begins in the cellars of the building where the family lives. Francesca takes part in the celebrations with a certain emotion. She hasn’t seen so many people for a long time. They eat, sing and play cards. The party continues through the night. At the wedding celebrations Francesca dances with her father, and, for a moment during the dance, Francesca exchanges a look with a friend from the past. The day comes to an end and in the village square the carriage is ready and waiting to leave. Ziu Predu hugs Francesca emotionally. When Francesca goes back to the convent she will look sadly out of the grated window, which now seems just like a prison...

Winter
As every morning at the beginning of every month, Giorgio is queuing up at the post office to collect his pension. It’s the most important day in his hard life, holed up in a small flat that seems like the back of a shop. On that day, Giorgio can buy his chicken and carefully prepare himself for a meeting with Palla. Back at home Giorgio finds a letter. Inside there are photos of the marriage of a distant relative: it’s Simona, the bride from the previous episode. The man feverishly prepares, he carefully chooses his best suit, sets the table and makes his way to the port where Palla works together with the other young prostitutes from the East. They go back to the flat and they start to sing as they have every time in the past, until Giorgio falls asleep. That day the song continues in a field, like in a dream… there are lots of people and everyone seems to have come to give Giorgio a send-off for his last journey….