GLI ULTIMI
THE LAST ONES
Michele Sammarco / Italy / 2024 / 70 min / Colour
Walking through the narrow streets of Faeto, a small village in the mountains of Foggia, in Puglia, are a cheerful and talkative parish priest and his young assistant. Don Antonio and Agostino go door to door to distribute the parish bulletin, offer blessings, and above all, meet and speak with the elderly. Among them are women who still practice age-old rituals—somewhere between superstition and folk magic. It seems the priest is in dialogue with the entire small community. Yet there are two elderly women he does not visit: Assunta and Erminia, who live in isolation on the slopes of Monte Cornacchia, the highest peak of the Daunian Mountains. The road leading up is in poor condition, and the two women—mother and daughter—live alone, taking care of themselves, their animals, and a home that grows more fragile by the day. It is Don Antonio’s own mother who urges him to care for everyone, even the most forgotten. Her words inspire him to bridge the distance and finally make the journey up the mountain to see the two women.
Michele Sammarco
A director from Padua, born in 1991, he studied Visual and Performing Arts at IUAV in Venice and graduated in Film Directing from the Luchino Visconti School of Cinema in Milan. With his short film Maria vola via (2017), he began exploring traditions and rituals of the rural world. He participated in the creation of the web documentary Setteponti Walkabout (2018), presented at the Taormina Film Fest and the RIFF in Rome.Il monte interiore (2020) was selected by Visions du Réel. In 2025, he took part in Berlinale Talents.
