based on an original idea by Marcello Moscara
Fili di Parole by Valentina d’Andrea
set design by Maurizio Buttazzo
Along the final kilometres of the Via Francigena, a donkey named Bartolo and his faithful companion Martino lead a troupe of artists along the roads leading to Finibus Terrae, where pilgrims once set sail for the Holy Land.
Under a warm, blinding light, a photographer, two musicians, two film directors and a poet travel through Salento, encountering situations that lie somewhere between the expected and the unexpected, feeling every single step conquer every metre of ground.
What can one discover whilst travelling on foot, each with their own personal inspiration and way of expressing themselves?
And all this whilst following a donkey – a symbol of both knowledge and ignorance at the same time?
A new way of living and breathing new life into the land, a magic straddling the sacred and the profane, between destruction and wonder, between amazement and resignation: emerging from a dense oak forest to discover the chimney of a coal-fired power station, or crossing ghostly expanses of olive trees scorched by Xylella, yet still feeling the earth vibrate beneath your feet, still continuing to walk, to discover, to breathe, to photograph, to play music, to write, to sow.
