Creatura dove vai? sprang from its writers’ desire to recreate an imaginary nineteenth-century Italian South, in which a universe with medieval roots still survived.
The inhabitants of this land led a hard life, in extreme poverty; the hostile climate switched between droughts and heavy flooding; the soil did not produce fruits, the landscape consisted of huge distances to be covered barefoot; the mountains were insuperable barriers.
A pagan, animist world, in which Saints, spirit, dragons and witches lived side by side in a single pantheon and possess the ability to morph into animals, plants, natural elements or objects, and participate in human life, like the gods of ancient Greece.
The landscape is seen as a source of divination, mystery and ambiguity.
The Creature encounters figures and characters along the way, who seem to have been created by the landscape itself: the youth, the shepherdess, the man and lastly the little girl, moulded from the same white clay as the mountain.
The ambiguity of the Saint’s message and the stupidity of the Creature give rise to constant misunderstandings that seem to led to miracles in reverse, in which the plundering of the woman and her meagre belongings ends up being a relief and a gift for her tormentors.
This tragicomic parable is created by the mingling of different registers, weaving together biblical, vulgar, fairytale and literary references, attempting to strike an impossible balance between holiness and blasphemy, faith and cynicism, humanity and inhumanity.
The very same blend with which these lands are permeated, promises a future of eternal bliss.
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ENGLISH
The sun is blazing, so much so the landscape has been shaped by it: aridity all around. In this characteristic setting of the South of Italy, the film takes place in the late 19th century. In the middle of this desert, a woman peasant, the “creature” from the title, is mysteriously visited by a Saint who invites her to undertake a pilgrimage towards an unknown destination. The journey will be restless and the misunderstanding between the urging of the Saint and the narrow-minded comprehension of the women will keep amplifying the obstacles along her way. Understandably, the directors Gaia Formenti and Marco Piccarreda have chosen to follow the tradition of scathing comedy. More specifically leaning towards a fable and its stylisation, where beings and elements fall under the control of an implacable fatality epitomized by the sun leaving no trace of shadow. Although the connection with a certain Italian cinema is obvious, that of Pasolini for instance, we are ultimately struck by the lack of true conclusion. Everything happens as if the brutality of the schematism that grasps both beings and things was never softened by any final interpretation: the story unfolds without any explanation arising in the end, or any form of redemption: the events take place, follow one another, repeatedly. Under the sunlight, everything remains submitted to the bite of an icy and infernal eternity.
J.P.R. - FIDMARSEILLE CATALOGUE
FRENCH
Le soleil tape fort, le paysage s’en est trouvé façonné : tout d’aridité. Décor caractéristique du Sud de l’Italie, l’action est située en fin de 19ème siècle. Au beau milieu de ce désert, une paysanne, la « créature » du titre, reçoit la visite mystérieuse d’un Saint qui l’invite à entreprendre un pèlerinage vers une direction inconnue. Le périple ne sera pas de tout répit et les malentendus entre les exhortations du Saint et la compréhension bornée de la paysanne ne feront qu’amplifier les obstacles semés sur sa route. Les réalisateurs Gaia Formenti et Marco Piccarreda ont choisi ici, on l’aura compris, de se placer dans la tradition de la comédie grinçante. Plus précisément du côté de la fable et de sa stylisation, là où les êtres et les éléments tombent sous le joug d’une fatalité implacable dont le soleil est une figuration sans l’échappée d’une ombre. Mais si l’on saisit aisément la filiation avec un certain cinéma italien, Pasolini, par exemple, ce qui frappe ici, c’est en définitive l’absence de conclusion véritable. Tout se passe comme si la brutalité du schématisme qui saisit êtres et choses n’était jamais adoucie par une quelconque interprétation finale : le récit se déroule sans pour finir faire jaillir aucune explication, aucune forme de rédemption : les événements ont lieu, s’enchainent, et se répètent. Sous les rayons du soleil, tout reste néanmoins soumis à la morsure d’une éternité glaciale, infernale.
J.P.R. - FIDMARSEILLE CATALOGUE