Padre Padrone: M15 DVD

Paolo and Vittorio Taviani first garnered critical acclaim with this masterly adaptation of Gavino Ledda’s autobiography, winning both the Golden Palm and the Critics Prize at Cannes in 1977. It tells the story of Gavino, a young boy who at the age of six is pulled out of school by his father, severely beaten and forced to work as a shepherd. Yet Gavino’s illiteracy spurs him on to eventually earn a university degree in linguistics. His journey from the cruel, solitary world of shepherding under the yoke of his tyrant padre, to that of a writer and a linguist is a moving, uplifting story and masterpiece of Italian cinema.