Director and writer: Maria Grazia Perria, Producer: Salvatore Cubeddu, Production company: Terra De Punt, Country: Italy, Language: Italian, 100′, 2024, Territories: World
Between 1888 and 1900, Grazia Deledda‘s artistic identity takes shape, as depicted in the film through events in her life, from her early stories to her move to Rome. The writer overcomes personal, familial, and cultural obstacles, transforming her experiences, platonic loves, and disappointments into inspiration for her early novels. The story concludes with her meeting Palmiro Madesani, a pivotal figure who enables her long-desired move to the capital, marking the fulfillment of her dreams.
The events and experiences of this period, as recounted in her posthumous autobiographical book Cosima, can also be found in the extensive correspondence Deledda maintained with many people, primarily men. She almost always established a dynamic of seduction with them—sometimes she became infatuated, and in some cases, they became infatuated with her. These were virtual romances, with no in-person meetings, yet they fueled the young woman’s desire for escape and made her dream of love.
Deledda channeled her early romantic turmoil, passions, and disappointments into her debut stories, written in a raw and mannered style. She translated her thoughts from the language she spoke at home, Logudorese, into Italian—an endeavor fraught with difficulties. Her formal education ended at the fourth grade, and her growth as a writer was largely self-taught. However, she was driven by immense determination and a vivid imagination, nurtured by the novels she found at home or managed to acquire. With great willpower, she overcame the obstacles posed by a conventional family environment, where the publication of her early writings was seen as a source of embarrassment in the small Nuorese community of the time. She avidly absorbed the stories told by the household servants during long winter evenings by the fire and deeply experienced the wild harshness of the nature surrounding Nuoro, internalizing its spirit.
These were the sources that fueled her fertile imagination, inspiring her to write her short stories and early novels, particularly La via del male, which reflects her upbringing in the rugged Barbagia region. By then already fairly well-known, she fell passionately in love—solely through letters—with a Sardinian literary critic living in Rome, Stanis Manca. However, she suffered great humiliation when, after traveling to Nuoro to meet her, he dismissed her as mignonne and criticized her literary ambitions. With her unwavering determination, she transformed this heartbreak into strength, turning Stanis Manca from a potential lover into a rival to whom she would prove her worth.
With the publication of her early novels, she gradually gained literary recognition, both in Sardinia and beyond. The film concludes in 1900, when she meets Palmiro Madesani, an obscure government official who, in her eyes, has the great merit of being able to take her to Rome—where, as she has always dreamed, she can finally take part in the grand celebration of life.
“Screenwriter and documentary filmmaker Maria Grazia Perria’s narrative feature directorial debut is a sensitive, intelligent and arresting biopic of the early life and artistic struggles of Sardinian novelist Grazia Deledda.”
BFI
Cast:
In collaboration with MyCulture+
