Una promessa
A tragic accident and a desperate promise: you will see your mother again, says Giuseppe to his nine-year-old son Antò after the mother dies while harvesting crops. Since Giuseppe can no longer work in the quarry after having lost an eye on the job, father and son are forced into the same toil that claimed the mother’s life. (Festival information, Mannheim-Heidelberg 2020)
The film tells the story of a widowed father and his son forced to work as illegal farm laborers in southern Italy. Framed by a scene of familial warmth and tenderness and told through an intensely personal aesthetic, Una Promessa shows the deeper significance of love in a world of poverty, humiliation, and death. The film leaves us with a strong statement on human dignity and the need for breaking the circle of exploitation and violence. A sign of hope remains with the boy who can begin something new. (Photo:© Shellac Films)