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. Shot on expired 16mm stock, Lost and Beautiful is a ravishing work that heralds the arrival of an extraordinary new filmmaker. (Grasshopper)
Pietro Marcello's Werner Schroeter-influenced elegy for Italy is magnificently misbegotten.
- James Quandt, Artforum
Marcello doesn’t invite you into his experimental documentary; you have to push your way in. It’s worth the fight, and patience.
- Manohla Dargis, The New York Times
It’s the curious virtue of this singularly original film that Lost and Beautiful manages to tell a truth that’s not just poetic, but political too, not just animal, but profoundly human.
- Jonathan Romney, Film Comment
The film has the beauty of a Romantic painting, and it allows us to hear the voice of the buffalo's thoughts as it contemplates the fate of beasts and men in this troubled world. I haven't seen anything like it this year.
- Kong Rithdee, The Bangkok Post
A highly unusual, assertive, and ultimately moving work. And though it may be the closest Marcello has come to making a traditional European art film, it exhibits all of the impulsive tics that make his films so singular and expansive.
- Blake Williams, Cinema Scope
(Available to download after screening date)