Men Are Hungry Too

Fifty years ago, in the heel of the boot of Italy, the Salento region was one of the poorest places in Europe. Many from the region set off to seek their fortunes elsewhere; at the time, more than 150,000 people left Salento to go abroad or move to the North of Italy. In a melancholy and sun-drenched short film, two now elderly men from the village of Gagliano look back at their experiences of the past.

One left, the other stayed behind. Nardo opened his own bar on the village square in 1973. Forty-five years later, Bar Bielle 2000 is still a meeting place for the villagers. One of the regulars is Mimmi, who left for Switzerland at the time for a life of hard work, including a job on the construction of the Gotthard Tunnel.

The two men’s intimate, sometimes nostalgic reminiscences are captured in dreamlike images in a striking square format, which is also used for the archive footage that’s interwoven with the present, like memories suddenly coming to mind. The two very different and yet connected life stories of these men blend in a similar fashion.