Sow the Wind

Nica, a young student agronomist, returns to her parents’ home in the south of Italy after a long absence. She is deeply attached to her grandmother’s land and its centuries-old olive trees, which have not borne fruit for three years. They are infested with insects which no pesticide has so far been able to eradicate. Nica is resolved to find a solution. But time is running out because her parents are struggling financially and want to cut the trees down. As gentle but as strong-willed as the nature with which she shares a bond, Nica will have to stand up to her father. Imbuing every scene with the strength of its young heroine, Danilo Caputo’s second feature beautifully interweaves modernity and tradition, rebellion and conservatism, science and pagan beliefs against the backdrop of this Catholic country. Set in Apulia, not far from Europe’s largest steelworks which has been damaging the region’s environment for decades, the film is a visually rich ode to nature and a rural area that is acutely in touch with the troubles of our times. (Berlinale)