20/04/2022 - Volker Sattel and Francesca Bertin depict nature’s struggle against an illusory form of progress which is characterised by corruption and profit

Presented in a world premiere within the 2022 Visions du Réel Festival’s International Competition, Tara [+see also:
interview: Volker Sattel and Francesca…
film profile] by Volker Sattel and Francesca Bertin propels us towards the outskirts of Taranto, a region with all the makings of a locus amoenus which has been transformed, over the years, into a playing field for unscrupulous entrepreneurs who sacrifice nature on the altar of profit. At the heart of the story is the Tara, the undisputed hero of this dystopic tale. A small river on the periphery of Taranto - an ancient city close to the Mediterranean - the Tara owes its name to the mythical son of the sea god, Poseidon. Despite increasingly worrying levels of pollution, its waters are believed to be magical, imbued with healing and soothing properties.

Volker Sattel and Francesca Bertin’s film opens onto majestic views of the Tara and the countryside close to Taranto, a city with a legendary past where nature reigned supreme, before brutally yet inevitably catapulting us forwards in time to the same city decimated by anonymous high-rises and monstrous-looking factories. A land sacrificed in the name of a voracious form of progress which swallows up everything and everyone, Taranto and its lush countryside have fallen victim to a greedy society where the law of the strongest rules all. The steelworks (the old ILVA plant) located just a few kilometres from the city, right next to the miraculous river, has already claimed several victims: helpless workers who weren’t aware of the dangers associated with the daily inhalation of noxious gases. It’s a situation which has caused divisions within an already threadbare social fabric. But despite this degradation which seems increasingly tentacular in its reach and which devours the sumptuous natural surrounds which sustain and protect Taranto’s inhabitants, many of the locals are fighting to preserve the glorious past of this city nicknamed "the pearl of the Mediterranean".

Through shots vested with an ancient form of beauty, as if souvenir photos of a now faded past, and armed with empathy and respect, Volker Sattel and Francesca Bertin interview men and women who are still fighting for survival. In a natural exchange between the camera and these everyday heroes, and with surprising formal elegance, Tara tells micro-stories where myths and ancestral traditions collide with rationalism and economic development. Archive footage highlighting the fact that the fuse for unbridled progress was lit many years earlier is particularly striking, revealing a decadent new trend whereby popular beliefs fell foul to the destructive power of the former.

With Tara, Volker Sattel and Francesca Bertin show us the beauty amidst the decay, the mysticism hiding behind cement facades; the scene where a local makes flowers out of PET bottles is especially moving in this respect. Tara tries to rebuild, to find a lost past and lost dignity, as if wanting to remind us that film still has the potential to bring about change, even if only during a moment of solidarity felt within the four walls of a darkened room.

Tara is produced by fufifilm.

(Translated from Italian)