Three Steps Dancing

Colour, 35 mm
Italy, 2003, 107 min
Section: Horizons

Synopsis

Twenty-six years after Padre padrone, this directorial debut takes us back once again to sunny Sardinia. Arid pastureland, mountains, the sea, small towns and poor villages: despite the ostensible advance of civilization and a booming tourist industry, one can still find all the elements that the Taviani brothers brought to the screen. Four stories are connected by the four seasons and by four stages of human life. The characters move freely from one story to the next, though each segment has its own hero, captured on an exceptional day in his or her life: a boy named Andrea sees the sea for the first time; shepherd Michele enjoys his first experience of love; a young nun is captivated by the richness of the reality that lies beyond the walls of her cloister; and an old man encounters death on a day when he had made entirely other plans... The director avoided artsy plots, striving instead to penetrate into the atmosphere of the moment, into the lives of the islanders: harsh, real, full of deep feeling and loneliness.

About the director

Salvatore Mereu (b. 1965, Dorgali, Sardinia) studied at the University of Bologna, then at the Scuola Nazionale di Cinema, graduating in 1997 as a director. While still in school he shot two shorts, Prima della Fucilazione and Miguel, awarded at various festivals (Locarno, Clermont-Ferrand, Annecy). Three Steps Dancing (Ballo a tre passi, 2003) is his feature debut. He himself claims that the movie partakes of the neorealist tradition in its interest in ordinary protagonists and stories, as well as in location filming.