The Tree Of Wooden Clogs

The Sunday Age

Sunday June 10, 2007

Iain McKay

5/5

(G, 186mins) Umbrella

Ermanno Olmi's patient reconstruction of turn-of-the-century Italian peasant life was shot over four seasons, and, like nature itself, he was not in a hurry. Using locals to play the four families that farm the estate for their opera-loving landlord, Olmi achieves a remarkable degree of authenticity as he explores in anthropological detail the events and dramas that shape their lives. From the birth of a newborn child, to the planting of spring tomatoes, he lays bare their hopes, fears and commitment to each other with admirable objectivity. The result is a damning indictment of 20th-century feudalism that eloquently explains the subsequent mass migrations to America, Australia and a better life. A singular masterpiece.