Ermanno Olmi's Cannes-winning drama is set in rural Italy at the end of the 19th century, centred on four families of peasants who live in the same farm complex. As the seasons change, the film simply follows their toil, lives and traditions with the central motif the carving of a child's clog from a felled poplar tree. Using a completely amateur cast drawn from rural farms, Olmi's contemplative, elegiac film is a beautifully shot record of a vanished way of life.
The Tree of Wooden Clogs is a Film programme that first aired in 1978 and has been classified a 12 certificate.
