Bandits Of Orgosolo sits somewhere between a drama and a documentary- blending barrenly beautiful landscapes with a story of fear, pride and family. The early 1960s Italian film focuses on a Sardinian Shepard whose encounter with Bandits, lands him going on the run with his flock and younger brother. Here from Radiance- both in the UK and stateside- is a new Blu-Ray release of the film that gained praise from the likes of Scorsese and Pasolini. The UK edition adds an extra disc of the director's short films/ related interviews, with the US version being just a single disc affair taking in a 4k scan of the picture and a few extras.

Bandits of Orgosolo (aka Banditi A Orgosolo) dates from the year 1961. It was directed/ co-written by Palermo, Sicily-born Vittorio De Seta- been his first feature-length film, after directing ten shorts, which largely seem to focus on the day-to-day lives of working people such as The Age Of Swordfish( 1955) which regarded the spear fishermen of Sicily, and A Day in Barbagia( 1958) which focused on the women in this mountainous area of Sardinian.  And though he had a total of twenty credits, he only helmed four other features- taking in rapidly edited & arty drama Un Uomo A Metà (1966), road movie The Uninvited (1969), the documentary In Calabria (1993) and barren landscape set drama Letters From Sahara( 2006). So certainly, an intriguing filmmaker who likes to dabble in both fact & fiction- sometimes blending and blurring them.

The black and white scoped film opens up very much in documentary form as we see a series of men hunting in the mist-shrouded mountains of Sardinian. There is no musical score at this point, all we hear is just the calls of the men & the mountain wind. After a deer is shot between the rocky crags- it’s slung over one man's shoulder, as he trudges back down the landscape.

In time we meet the film's two leads Michele & Peppeddu- who are uncredited, but clearly real-life brothers. Michele is in his mid-twenties with a short, ragged beard, and Peppeddu is somewhere around ten. They are shepherds managing & looking after their flock- which Michele purchased a year or so back, and is still paying back their cost.

The pair spend their days on the ragged slopes with their animals just above the small village where their family resides- the boy's father died some years back also looking after his flock. One day Michele notices a group of strangers herding pigs into a cave nearby, it turns out the three men are bandits, and one of them is wounded.

The men spend the night in Michele’s shepherd hut- the next morning a group of Carabinieri arrive looking for the men. Michele denies knowledge of the bandits, and one thing leads to another with one of the Carabinieri being shot by the bandits.  

This throws Michele into a panic, believing he will be blamed for the killing- so fairly soon he decides to take himself, his brother, and his flock deeper into the ragged and dangerous landscape.

The performances from Michele & Peppeddu are wonderfully naturalistic- with  Michele selling his predicament, and Peppeddu showing generally emotional concern as things go from bad to worse for his brother. The small surrounding cast is largely very good too.

The mountainous landscapes are captured with wonderful clarity and depth with the black-and-white stock. The organ and the light-orchestrated score is used- but never overused with the sound of the sheep bells, the landscape, and the shepherds themselves.

Bandits Of Orgosolo blend of drama and documentary is most intriguing and distinctive- with a real passion for the landscape & people of Sardinian, as well as telling a compelling/ felt story.  The new scan looks wonderful- really enchaining the depth & clarity of the black & white stock.

As mentioned in my introduction the UK version adds in a second disc- which I’ll touch on in a moment. Both version's first disc takes in the film and two new interviews. First is with curator and filmmaker Ehsan Khoshbakht (11.16) he starts off by talking about how the film was a return to neo-realism cinema for Italian cinema. He comments on the film's dance scene- which is creatively filmed from below. We find out the film was shot by the director himself, and he touches on the film's blend of rhythmic shooting & more quiet shooting. And an interview with cinematographer Luciano Tovoli( 27.48).

The second disc which comes with the UK version takes in The Lost World: A program of ten restored short films by De Seta, featuring Islands of Fire (1954, 11 mins), The Age of the Swordfish (1954, 11 mins), Golden Parable (1955, 10 mins), Sea Countrymen (1955, 11 mins), Solfatara (1955, 11 mins), Easter in Sicily (1955, 10 mins), Orgosolo’s Shepherds (1958, 11 mins), Fishing Boats (1959, 11 mins), A Day in Barbagia (1958, 11 mins), The Forgotten (1959, 21 mins), restored by Fondazione Cineteca di Bologna at L’Immagine Ritrovata laboratory and The Film Foundation, with funding provided by the George Lucas Family Foundation. 

Also on this disc, we get two interviews- the first new one is with Ehsan Khoshbakht( 21.04) where he discusses De Seta’s documentary films- we find out the director did everything on the film. He drove around in his van looking for people to document- then when he had the material he’d take it back to Rome to edit into shape. He recorded songs/ discussions/ etc in the communities, which were later used in the films. And from the archive, we have an interview with Vittorio De Set(18.28).

Bandits Of Orgosolo truly is a fascinating mix of fact and fiction- with the whole thing captured in wonderful atmospheric black & white. With a great selection of extras on both the UK and US versions of this release.