Grasshopper Films Shepherds Pietro Marcello’s “Lost and Beautiful”

A filmmaker we’ve been keeping tabs on since his acclaimed The Mouth of the Wolf landed in 2009 has found a supporter in Grasshopper Film’s Ryan Krivoshey. The distrib has come on board to back Pietro Marcello‘s third feature. Lost and Beautiful will open in theaters later this year.

Gist: Despite death threats from the Mafia and his country’s general apathy, a humble shepherd, Tommaso, takes it upon himself to look after the abandoned Bourbon palace of Carditello, deep in the heart of the ‘Land of Fires.’ One day, Tommaso is seized by a heart attack and dies; but not before making a final wish. He summons a masked character named Pulcinella to rescue a buffalo calf called Sarchiopone from the forsaken palace. Together, man and beast, embark on a long journey through a lost and beautiful Italy, searching for something which may no longer exist.

Worth Noting: The film was shot on 16mm stock.

Do We Care?: Selected for Toronto Film Festival’s Wavelengths section and this year’s New Directors / New Films, we’re thinking this might make for a distant cousin of Michelangelo Frammartino’s Le quattro volte.