Terra in Vista

Giulia Angrisani and Mattia Petullà – Director’s Statement

There is something frightening about indeterminacy, or the unpredictable nature of time, but thinking with precariousness means that indeterminacy also makes life possible. Anna Tsing

At the root of this project is the desire to tell the story of people who are too easily defined as outsiders or marginals. People who seem to refuse to fit into what is usually described as “civilisation”.

Sisco, Cecilia, Gibbo and Armelle work as nomadic seasonal workers in the vineyards or for other crops. This precarious work allows them to escape the misery of a preconceived existence. They look elsewhere for their intimate reason to be in the world. They do not seek an alternative identity to the dominant one, they do not adhere to any antagonism or ideology. The tension, the desire and the effort to reach ever more distant goals are worth infinitely more to them than any self-satisfaction or applause. They are not here to be “winners”.

Far from the usual reference points, within their temporary coexistence – which can resemble that experienced on a battlefield or after a disaster – something appeared: the feeling of anxiety that had pushed them to leave, to abandon everything, had not disappeared. And it is by accepting and sharing it, between “companions in adventure”, that we understood its importance for the film’s purpose. To make the precariousness of reality and the way of living the impermanence of things the very subject of our film.

We believe that a change of paradigms is necessary in our society, especially in the way we relate to others. We believe that pain, restlessness, insecurity, weakness are not feelings to be avoided. Crisis must be embraced, lived.