THE CLUMP

Who am I, the son of Laerte or the son of Anchise?
A man walks through the Salento countryside. He holds a glass jar in his hand. Empty. Fields of centuries-old olive trees exterminated by the Xylella fastidiosa bacterium parade past. The man walks towards his grandfather's olive grove. His destiny is to return to the places of his adolescence, in perpetual search of desire, fulfilling what he can imagine. To lose oneself is a condition of necessity. Strange shapes appear in the countryside. Weedy plants, inexorable in their growth and overgrowth, have cloaked the dry olive trees, creating majestic elephant-like shapes. Life suffocates death. Man passes through the olive grove as if in a dream. He feels both pain and joy at the same time in front of a landscape devastated by the Xylella fastidiosa plant disease. As he crosses the unique valley, the man feels observed. Wooden faces, fauns of the past, threaten him. Or perhaps they protect him? His indecisive step becomes resolute: he reaches the bank of a stream. Someone has laid out a tray of olive bark with a clod of earth on it: the Clump. The ritual is performed: the man purifies his hands with water from the stream, then slips the clod into the tray and walks away.
Meanwhile, in a nearby cave, one of the wooden fauns takes the form of his young sculptor and begins to bring the old olive trunk back to life. In an eternal present, everything begins again and is fulfilled in every single moment.
Who will I be, Odysseus or Enea?

  • Gino Martella
    Director
  • Gino Martella
    Writer
  • Niccolò Martella
    Writer
  • Gino Martella
    Producer
  • Cristian Antonio Cataldi
    Key Cast
    "the faun"
  • Gino Martella
    Key Cast
    "man with a jar"
  • Giuseppe Cederna
    Key Cast
    "Voice over"
  • Elisa Maggio
    Key Cast
    "Voice over"
  • Niccolò Martella
    Key Cast
    "Voice over"
  • Marco Jeronimo Merino
    Music
  • Massimo Bondielli
    DOP
  • Massimo Bondielli
    Editor
  • Gino Martella
    Editor
  • Lorenzo Ricci
    Graphic Design
  • Massimo Bondielli
    Post Production
  • Massimo Bondielli
    Sound
  • Marco Jeronimo Merino
    Sound
  • Niccolò Martella
    Costumes and Sets
    SKOTTO
  • Caravanserraglio Film Factory
    Production
  • Project Title (Original Language):
    LA PADDOTTA
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Runtime:
    7 minutes 56 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    May 26, 2023
  • Country of Origin:
    Italy
  • Country of Filming:
    Italy
  • Language:
    English, Italian
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital - 4K
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Gino Martella

I am 54 years old. Born in Salento, I live in Sarzana, Liguria. I studied in Siena, where in 1996 I graduated in Biology with honours. In 2003 I obtained a Master's degree in Environmental Law while in 2012 I graduated in Urban Planning with top marks. Since 2016 I have been a student at L'Aura Cinema School in Ostana of Giorgio Diritti and Fredo Valla. My passion and curiosity for what surrounds me lead me to continuous transformations, always looking for new balances in new experiences. In 2014, together with Massimo Bondielli, I founded the Caravanserraglio Film Factory association. I believe that cinema can tell stories by lightly exciting spectators in every Place.

Filmography (production):
• "Se io fossi acqua" (2013): screened at Milan EXPO 2015
• "Ovunque proteggi" (2015): special mention at Nastri d'Argento 2017
• "Il sole sulla pelle" (2019): finalist at the Nastri d'Argento 2019

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Director Statement

Losing oneself is a condition of necessity. It is necessary to lose oneself in order to go beyond. It is necessary to unlearn what we are in order to find ourselves again. The story begins with a memory and aims to explore the non-duality between life and death, joy and pain, imperfection and beauty. In the perennial search for desire, which is fulfilled by what we are capable of imagining and not by what we can achieve.
Our destiny is to return to the places of the ritual of adolescence, with primitive joy and an unconscious bearing. Even walking through rubble and ruins, we come across something or someone that will become part of our life inventory.
The centuries-old olive trees of Salento have witnessed entire generations of inhabitants of this land, representing a link between living and departed humans. Their suffering, their death become a metaphor for contemporary society. The creeper clings to the dry olive tree trunk. Life suffocates death.
Crossing the land as in a dream, looking deep inside. Feeling both sorrow and joy in front of a landscape devastated by Xylella phyto-pathy with certain dead olive trunks transformed into faces by a sculptor. The interplay between external conditions and inner tendencies determines our perception of the world. In this eternal conflict we are forced to walk and dream if we do not want to lose our balance.
The two characters on stage, the man with the jar and the young sculptor, do not speak. The sounds of nature and man are transformed into musical dialogues. The visual narrative is accompanied by three narrating voices. The first, that of the young Niccolò, places the tale in childhood memories. The second, that of Giuseppe Cederna, defines the space-time coordinates of the father-son relationship. Finally, the third, the female one of Elisa, inspired by Athena, addresses the olive trees and man, indicating the direction of a new journey. The project The Clump, a term used in Salento Griko to name a clump of earth, aims to make a short fiction film, a field application of the lesson of narrative documentary.
The short film The Clump is a dreamlike vision of the intimate mythology of native places. The gesture of picking up a clod of earth to take with one elsewhere establishes the primordial bond with the land of the fathers.