From beginnings to the 1990s
The first manifestations of cinema in Sardinia probably date back to the beginning of the 20th century. In 1916, the Italian director Febo Mari made Cenere (Ashes of the Past), a silent work adapted from the novel Braises by the writer Grazia Deledda, on Sardinian soil. In 1954, Italian director Mario Monicelli directed the first hit film shot in Sardinia: Proibito. However, when we talk about cinema in Sardinia, it is first of all Bandits in Orgosolo (1961) by the Sicilian Vittorio de Seta. This work on Sardinian banditry won the prize for best first film at the Venice Festival. De Seta had already shot a documentary three years earlier on the shepherds of Orgosolo(Pastori di Orgosolo). Several works such as A Question of Honour (1966, Ugo Tognazzi), Padre Padrone (1977, the Taviani brothers) or Disamistade (1988, Gianfranco) also deal with the traditional themes of shepherds and banditry. In the 1990s, Gianfranco Cabiddu was the first director to abandon these subjects dear to Sardinian cinema. His most representative film is Il Figlio di Bakunìn(The Son of Bakunìn, 1997), evoking the central themes of the history of the region in the twentieth century: fascism, the battles of the workers, the occupation of land in the post-war period, autonomy. In a completely different register, Sardinia also inspires the Japanese cartoon Tottoi (1992, Kiyozumi Norifumi), taken from the book by Gianni Padoan.
From the 2000s to the present day
The early 2000s saw the release ofUn Crime impossible (Antonello Grimaldi, 2001), set in the town of Sassari, Danse à trois pas (Salvatore Mereu), which won an award at the Venice Film Festival, andÀ la Dérive (2003, Guy Ritchie), with Madonna, a remake of Lina Wertmuller's Italian film shot in 1974(Swept away). In 2008, Salvatore Mereu returns with Sonetàula, presented at the Berlin Film Festival. In 2011, Leonardo Pieraccioni is shooting the comedy Finally Happiness in Santa Margherita di Pula, an important national Italian production. Two years later, Il Rosa Nudo by Sardinian director Giovanni Coda, shot in Quartu Sant'Elena and Siliqua, made a splash at the Queer Lion of the Venice Mostra. More recently, Silvio et les autres (2018, Paolo Sorrentino), 5 is the Perfect Number (2019, Igort) and Domino: The Silent War (2019, Brian de Palma) all place part of their shoot in Sardinia. The island's popularity among foreign filmmakers convinced the Sardinia region to create the Sardinia Film Commission, charged with setting up international production centres. Among them, the Fabbrica del Cinema is located in the abandoned mines of the Sulcis region. It should also be noted that every year in July Sardinia hosts the Isole del Cinema festival on the island of Tavolara.
