The Mute Man of Sardinia

Beretta's Island

May 1994 •English

Franco Columbo stars as Interpol operative Franco Armando - code name Beretta - who's forced out of retirement to avenge the cold-blooded murder of a cop. The killer's trail leads to Franco's hometown on the beautiful island of Sardinia, where drugs are turning the peaceful village into a hell hole. The sinister druglord has a sadistic welcome for Franco: the kidnapping of his best friend's beautiful daughter.

Padre Padrone

May 1977 •Italian

The true story of the life of Gavino Ledda, the son of a Sardinian shepherd, and how he managed to escape his harsh, almost barbaric existence by slowly educating himself, despite violent opposition from his brutal father.

What We Wanted

November 2020 •German

Alice and Niklas are a young couple who's biggest wish is to have a child of their own. After several failed attempts they decide to go on a holiday in Sardinia to clear their minds. There they meet a family from Austria that seems to have everything they ever wished for. But appearances can be deceiving...

L'uomo del mercato

October 2020 •Italian

The Tough and the Mighty

September 1969 •Italian

Based on the story of real life Sardinian bandit Graziano Mesina.

The Man with the Lantern

January 2018 •Italian

Assandira

September 2020 •Italian

Soaked to the skin, Costantino sinks into the haystack like old timber left on the shore by a stormy sea. Torrential rain has just put out the fire that in a single night ravaged Assandira, a farmstay deep in the woods of Sardinia. But the rain hasn't quenched the pain, the endless remorse for the son lost to the flames, the son he was unable to save. The first to arrive are the carabinieri and the young investigating magistrate: Costantino tries to tell them what happened the previous night, to explain how it all began.

Inventata da un dio distratto

December 2001 •Italian

This film is dedicated to Maria Lai, an artist born in 1919 in Ulassai, Sardinia. Surrounded and inspired by the ogliastra countryside, the cyclopic guardian of plots and landslides, Maria Lai uses inert materials like stone, concrete, asphalt, metal and wood to work old and new legends into librettos of individual works, installations and interventions, thus becoming part of the landscape that calls to her. In making this film the authors have confided in the artist’s role as a spokeperson, and it is as if one is listening to the voice of a wild olive tree - both millenary and contemporary - a voice that knows what to say (and can say whatever it wants) from beyond the boundaries of reality, history, nature and art. As that tree, the artist - confident of her roots - with a sound sense of rhythm and scansion, multiplies big and small stories, just as she did with the bread and fish in Santa Barbara di Ulassai along the way to the country church.

Ancient Warriors

March 2003 •English

Special Forces Captain Aldo Paccione must pull together his former world team Delta Force and go deep within the mines of Sardinia when it is discovered that a vengeful band of mercenaries are developing deadly biochemical weapons.

The Spy Who Loved Me

July 1977 •English

Russian and British submarines with nuclear missiles on board both vanish from sight without a trace. England and Russia both blame each other as James Bond tries to solve the riddle of the disappearing ships. But the KGB also has an agent on the case.

Pelle vegetale. Un'intervista

May 2019 •Italian

French Fried Vacations 3: Friends Forever

February 2006 •French

After the Club Med and skiing, what happened to the Bronzés 27 years later? Early response: the same, and worse.

The Stuff of Dreams

December 2016 •Italian

Members of the Camorra on the run and actors seeking for authority meet after a shipwreck on an island-prison. The theatre turns into a free zone where everyone may not be able to recover their social role but for sure their humanity. Somebody can even get love back. Shakespeare and Eduardo De Filippo blend together in a picaresque comedy full of coup de théâtre.

Doublecross on Costa's Island

January 1997 •English

Six years after stopping a multi-national arms deal that would have wiped out Los Angeles, Agent Enrico Costa (Franco Columbu) is tracked down at his home halfway around the world. Through revenge and deception, from Sardinia to Beverly Hills, Costa must ready for a final showdown by finding his way through an intricate web of double crosses, while meeting up with old friends and enemies. If Costa wants to survive and save his home, and island, he will have to fight his way out!

Taken Alive

May 1994 •English

A beautiful secret agent recruits a local sculptor to aid her in rescuing a presidential candidate's kidnapped mistress.

Mollo tutto e apro un chiringuito

December 2021 •Italian

Mr. Imbruttito, a leading executive of a large multinational, lives the routine in his hectic Milan. Breaking this balance is Brusini, an eccentric entrepreneur at the head of an economic empire, who for an absurd reason blows up what for the Brutito is the business of life. For the first time, the Ugly one feels the pinch, falls into depression, can no longer find a reason to wake up in the morning. The turning point comes from Brera, a longtime friend, who proposes to the Bruttito the purchase of a Chiringuito in Sardinia, to do business in flip-flops and finally be able to say: "I quit everything and open a chiringuito!"

The Last Fistful of Land

November 1966 •Italian

'L'ultimo pugno di terra' (The Last Fistful of Land) is a 1966 documentary film directed by Fiorenzo Serra about the anguish and instability of the lower classes in a destitute Sardinia. Originally commissioned by the Sardinian regional government as a celebratory piece on the 'miraculous' effects of the 'Piano di Rinascita della Sardegna' (Sardinia's Rebirth Plan), the film instead shows an island still 'standing still in time', barely affected by the painful oxymoron of the inevitable changes taking place.

A Day in Barbagia

June 1958 •Italian

Against the background of flocks of sheep at pasture, mules walking down unpaved roads, tractors in the fields, and isolated figures in a deserted village, a caption explains that Barbagia is a vast region in Sardinia; Orgosolo, Oliena and Mamoiada are villages of shepherds and the men spend most of the year far away, with their flocks. This is why the houses and the children are entrusted to the women, who cut the wood, work the fields and prepare bread, shepherds’ bread.

Metropolis

February 1927 •German

In a futuristic city sharply divided between the rich and the poor, the son of the city's mastermind meets a prophet who predicts the coming of a savior to mediate their differences.

My Life Without Me

March 2003 •English

A fatally ill mother with only two months to live creates a list of things she wants to do before she dies without telling her family of her illness.