Il Dono

A gentle, beguiling hymn to a semi-deserted Calabrian countryside and those who stayed behind, Il Dono is a portrait of depopulation in the village of Caulonia (the filmmaker’s ancestral town), which saw a dramatic decrease in inhabitants from roughly 15,000 in the 1950s to just a few hundred people at the time of the film’s making. In mainly long, static, observational takes and with next to no dialogue, Il Dono pieces together the fragments of a place guided by slow rhythms and which could be described as “old world” with traditions, rituals, charm aplenty, and not a few ruins from the relentless ravages of time.

Gorgeously shot on 16mm (then transferred to 35mm, and presented here in a recent digital restoration of superlative color), each frame of Il Dono is like a painting, whether a landscape, portraits of great, weather-worn faces, or still lives reminiscent of Giorgio Morandi’s glass bottles.

The restoration was carried out by Co-production Office and Fondazione Cineteca di Bologna, starting from the original negative camera and sound. Director Michelangelo Frammartino supervised the restoration. The processes were carried out at the L’Immagine Ritrovata and Augustus Color laboratory in 2022.

“A poetic-ethnographic portrait of [Frammartino’s] ancestral hometown.” – ArtForum

“Frammartino's first feature's is notable for its measured pace and subtle approach to storytelling. ” – Time Out