Private Project

The Melodies Hunter

Launeddas is a 3,000 years’ old Sardinian triple pipe, blown with the technique of circular breathing. After World War II it was at risk of extinction. In the winter of 1957, a Danish student of anthropology, Andreas Fridolin Weis Bentzon, on board of a Nimbus motorbike, crossed Europe to reach Sardinia ,where he invested all his physical and cultural energies to save launeddas’ repertoire and create the renaissance of the instrument.

  • Dante Olianas
    Director
  • Dante Olianas
    Producer
  • Paolo Sanna Caria
    DOP
  • Reda Mahmoud Abo Ahmed
    Editor
  • Project Type:
    Documentary
  • Runtime:
    39 minutes 33 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    August 8, 2023
  • Country of Origin:
    Italy
  • Country of Filming:
    Denmark, Italy
  • Language:
    English, Italian, Other
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • NAFA Film Festival 2023
    Copenhagen
    Denmark
    August 23, 2023
    World Premiere
Director Biography - Dante Olianas

Dante Olianas was born in Sardinia in 1952.
After his studies at the University of Cagliari, he discovers the work on launeddas written by Andreas Fridolin Weis Bentzon as his doctorate thesis in Anthropology at the University of Copenhagen.

Considering that the work written by the Dane had never been published in Italian, Dante starts translating it and applies and later obtains two scholarships from the Danish Ministry of Education. In this way, in 1981-82, he gains access to an incredible amount of material: sound recordings, rushes, pictures, ethnographic items, field notes etc. left by Bentzon in the major Danish Institutions: The Danish Folklore Archives, The National Museum, The Royal Library, The Music Museum, The Danish Film Institute as well as in private collections.
To give visibility to this rare treasure and to be able to obtain public support, Dante, in 1985, founds the Cultural Association Iscandula. Out of Bentzon’s materials, the Association has until today published 8 books, 3 documentary films, CDs etc.
Over the years, Iscandula has become the reference point for most of Bentzon’s informants, his heirs, and his friends.

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