The Tree of Wooden Clogs

I once heard of a man in Newcastle who stipulated that when he died there should be no funeral service for him. Anyone who cared for his memory should instead watch The Tree of Wooden Clogs, a 1978 film written and directed by the Italian Ermanno Olmi.

It was a good choice. Apart from other considerations, this is one of the great Italian films of the post-Neorealist period. Set in Lombardy in the late 19th century, the film depicts the working lives and utter hardship of four families (all played by local non-professionals) who work on the farm of a local landowner. A priest tells Bastiti (Luigi Ornaghi), of one of the four families, that his son is remarkably intelligent and must go to school.

However, the school is six miles away and the boy has no footwear. The father chops down a tree and carves out a pair of clogs for him. When this is discovered the landlord is furious and he evicts the family. British director Mike Leigh was very impressed by the film and remarked: “…it puts onscreen the great, hard, real adventure of living and surviving from day to day”.