The bull and the tamer - documentary short film

The rite of carnival in Escalaplano, Sardinia between poetic vision, insight into tradition and anthropological analysis.
It is said that during the night some men would turn into bulls and would approach the house of the people that were to die that night, bellowing. The half-man and half-bull creature - "su boi" - runs wildly through the streets of the town, gores people and his tamer to instil fear and throws himself on the ground bellowing.
He faces the calming figure of "su domadori" who holds him back, jabs him and hits him with a whip. The tamer is a sort of sorcerer who performs a very powerful therapeutic ritual called "s'imbruxiadura"
which consists in guiding the bull into a circle forcing him to roll on the ground in order to let the Earth absorb his negative forces. The tamer takes off the headgear from the taurine figure making him symbolically regain the human appearance with his return to humanity.

The documentary comes to life from the memories of the elderly, sometimes they are clear, other times they touch a soft and emotionally charged reminiscence.
The documentary unfolds between these two narrative plans, the desire to make known some facts of the Sardinian tradition and at the same time to tell - through images - what the memories embrace: emotions, fairy tales... a remembrance, sometimes faded, which leaves a strong impression.
The incipit describes the soul of the documentary.
It is a story of roads that were lost and then rediscovered.
Told as a fairy tale, as a mystery, a magic,
told with the irony of the carnival.
A folk tale that has become a tradition.
It is and continues to be a search for the human soul
and its many nuances.