Giuseppe Lazzari

In the forested slopes surrounding the rural Tuscan village of Tirli, a group of lumberjacks work long hours felling trees in the hopes of making an ample profit. Amongst them, a recently widowed father struggles to overcome the pain of his wife’s death, whilst juggling the fresh financial pressures of raising two motherless children.

Ludovico is an arrogant boy who grew up in the comforts and vices among money, parties, and excesses: he has known every wealth except that of the soul. Filippo is a young man who faces all suffering, poverty, and abuse in order to grow up. the former has the urge to possess a phony independence, the other feels the need to fail to respect his own body and values in order to survive. their encounter will mark the rest of their existence.

In 1935, Pietro Spina, a communist intellectual forced to emigrate for political reasons, secretly returns to Italy, driven by nostalgia for his homeland. Under the identity of Don Paolo Spada, a priest recovering from illness, he moves to Pietrasecca, a small village in the mountains of Abruzzo.