The Lark Farm

During the First World War, the Young Turks Party orders the massacre of the Armenians. All the males in the Avakian family are slaughtered, while the females, including proud, headstrong Nunik, are led into the desert, where they are doomed to perish. But Nazim, a member of the Turkish "Confraternity of Beggars", is plotting to save them. One night, a horse-drawn carriage with a false bottom arrives to take them away, only the Turkish guards grow suspicious. To distract them, Nunik runs out into the centre of the camp and begins singing an Armenian song. As the commander orders that she be killed, her eyes catch those of Youssouf, a Turkish soldier who has fallen in love with her. He has promised that he will never let her be tortured, and so, as the rest of her family escapes, he makes sure that Nunik dies a quick, merciful death.

Paolo Taviani was born in San Miniato, Italy, in 1931. His older brother, Vittorio, was born two years before. Together they did a series of documentaries between 1954 and 1959, and they collaborated in the realization of Italy Is Not a Poor Country (1960), by Joris Ivens. They directed their first feature together with Valentino Orsini, A Man for Burning (1962). The partnership between brothers would continue in 17 other films. Paolo and Vittorio were two of the directors issued in I Nostri 30 Anni - Generazioni a Confronto (30th Mostra), by Giovanna Taviani, Vittorio’s daughter. Among their most famous films are Father and Master (30th Mostra), which won the Golden Palm at Cannes and Good Morning Babylonia (11th Mostra). The 30th Mostra showed some of their political movies like The Meadow, The Subversives and Under the Sign of Scorpio.

43ª MOSTRA INTERNACIONAL DE CINEMA

43ª MOSTRA INTERNACIONAL DE CINEMA