Lorenzo Conte

Italian documentary illustrating the xylella virus devastation of the olive-growing flora in Apulia by the xylella virus. In Apulia, a region in south-eastern Italy, the most serious botanical pandemic of the century is underway: a quarantine bacterium, Xylella Fastidiosa, is killing millions of olive trees. Disrupting landscape, economy and human relations. The Era of Giants narrates Giuseppe’s journey to his father’s land, in the Plain of the Monumental Olive Trees, where the epidemic is imminent. He will have to explain to the old farmer how their lives will be disrupted by this invisible bacterium, hitherto unknown in Italy.

Starting from Allende's last speech to the nation and recalling the events of 11 September 1973 which led to the Pinochet dictatorship, the project is conceived for the use of archival materials which attempt to subvert the ineluctability of history, on a imaginary line of “ehat if” hypotheses as opposed to the reality of the facts. A project that wants to be a source of memory and reflection for today, in an era of sovereignty and the return of fascism not only in Latin America, but throughout the world.