ITALY – 2022 – DCP – color – 66’

Direction: Davide Barletti, Lorenzo Conte
Screenplay: Davide Barletti, Lorenzo Conte, Roberto Greco, Stefano Martella liberamente tratto da La morte dei Giganti di Stefano Martella
Cinematography: Davide Micocci
Editing: Domenico De Orsi
Sound: Michele Leucci
Original music: Valerio Daniele
Narrator voice: Giuseppe Semeraro
Cast: JFrancesco Semeraro, Giuseppe Semeraro, Riccardo Valentini, Alessandra Viola, Stefano Cristante, Pierfederico La Notte, Stefano Liberti, Maria Saponari, Donato Boscia, Roberto Gennaio, Marco Cattaneo, Fabio Pollice, Daniele Rielli, Enzo Marzano, Massimo Polidoro, Chiara Paladini, Giovanni Melcarne, Orazio Semeraro, Tiziana Colluto, Chiara Idrusa Scrimieri, Roberta Bruno, Roberto Tramacere, Massimo Colizzi, Rita Accogli, Ada Martella, Franco Nuzzo, Mimmo Urselli, Vito Lisi
Production: Dinamo Film, Fluid Produzioni con il contributo di Apulia Film Commission

SYNOPSIS

In Salento, southern Apulia, the most serious phytosanitary emergency of the century is underway: a quarantine bacterium, Xylella Fastidiosa, is killing millions of olive trees. Against this attack there is still no cure, and the epidemic is advancing northwards.
Olive trees cover 60% of Salento’s territory and their desiccation disrupts the landscape, the economy and human relations, threatening the symbiotic relationship that man has been carrying on with these giants since the dawn of time.
Giuseppe returns to his father’s land, the plain of monumental olive trees in Valle d’Itria, threatened by the advance of this bacterium, to tell the old farmer what he has seen in Salento, in a journey weaving together memories, testimonies, conflicting opinions; a cry of alarm and pain from a wounded land that has built its identity on the symbol of the olive tree.

DIRECTORS
Davide Barletti, Lorenzo Conte

Being among the founders of Fluid Video Crew, a collective with which they make video installations, shorts and documentaries, they wrote and directed their first fiction feature film in 2008:
Life Sentence. Their documentaries include: Italian Sud Est, Radio Egnatia, Diary of an Affiliate, Non c’era nessuna signora a quel tavolo, Ritratto di Ettore Scola and Theo Angelopoulos, il poeta del tempo. The documentary The Country Where Trees Fly. Eugenio Barba and the Days of Odin was presented at the Venice Days.
The War of the Yokels, their second fictional film, was nominated for Best Photography and Best Editing at the Silver Ribbon awards and Best Non-Original Screenplay at the David di Donatello awards.

DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
“The events that tell about the territory and a social community have always characterised our films and Apulia has consistently been the privileged theatre for setting these stories.
What was happening before our eyes was immediately clear: the arrival in Salento of such a devastating disease as Xylella would have been a shock and would have suddenly changed an entire territory and its community.
May Il tempo dei giganti be a chance for the general public to know what is happening in Apulia. The problem of Xylella involves the delicate balance between man and nature, between globalization and diversification, between an old conception of the agricultural economy and new virtuous practices. And, while humans further separate themselves, arguing about blame and maintaining their rigid positions, the olive tree slowly dies.”

FILMOGRAFIA

2003 Italian Sud-Est
2008 Radio Egnatia (doc, di Davide Barletti)
2008 Finepenamai
2009 From Zero (doc)
2009 Diario di uno “Scuro” (doc)
2010 Non c’era nessuna signora a quel tavolo (doc)
2011 Ritratto di Ettore Scola (doc)
2012 Theo Angelopoulos, il poeta del tempo
2015 Il paese dove gli alberi volano (doc, di Davide Barletti)
2017 La guerra dei cafoni
2022 Nulla di sbagliato (doc)
2022 Il Tempo dei Giganti (doc) world première