Spettacolo

With director Jeff Malmberg in person

Dir. Jeff Malmberg. 2017, 91 mins. Digital projection. In Italian with English subtitles. Once upon a time, villagers in a tiny hill town in Tuscany came up with a remarkable way to confront their issues: They turned their lives into a play. Every summer for half a century, the villagers of Monticchiello have turned a piazza into a stage and transformed themselves into the players. This annual tradition has attracted worldwide attention and kept the town intact, but with an aging population and the next generation increasingly disinterested, the 50th anniversary performance just might be the last. Spettacolo tells the story of Teatro Povero di Monticchiello, interweaving episodes from its past with its modern-day process as the villagers turn a series of devastating blows into a new play about the end of their world. “So poignant and is so intelligently told that it feels wrong, almost insulting, to call Spettacolo charming, even if the movie is often delightful.” —Manohla Dargis, The New York Times

Preceded by Palenque