Directed by Michelangelo Frammartino • Arthouse • 2003 • Italy • Italian with English subtitles
Starring Angelo Frammartino, Gabriella Maiolo

A gentle, beguiling hymn to a semi-deserted Calabrian countryside and those who stayed behind, “Il Dono” is a portrait of depopulation in the village of Caulonia, the filmmaker’s ancestral town. Gorgeously shot with long painterly takes and with next to no dialogue, it pieces together the fragments of a place guided by slow rhythms, traditions, charm aplenty, and the relentless ravages of time.