From the Cloud to the Resistance(Dalla nube alla resistenza)

The first part begins with a deity proclaiming ‘a law that must be obeyed,’ and ends with a peasant decrying the gods who ‘watched us suffer.' In between, fabled characters reflect on the rigorous rules and murderous rituals imposed on mortals by their divine overlords. In the second half, those mythical allegories play out in real life through a man returns to his hometown and learns of the atrocities meted out to those who dared to resist ‘the fatherland, the family and the church.’ Pessimistic as always towards history and human nature, Huillet-Straub’s adaptation of two of Cesare Pavese’s novels is cloaked in sounds and images of utmost beauty – their gentle nod, perhaps, about how the revolution is still worth fighting for.

6/10 (Sun): Film talk with Bryan Chang