“With theatrical form and technique serving as the framework for their political cinema, and complex, individualistic characters as protagonists, the Tavianis are as concerned with corruption, abuse of power, poverty, and suffering as were the neorealists and their successors [...] Other themes and topics in Taviani films include divorce, revolution as an ongoing effort interrupted by interludes of other activity, the changing ways of dealing with power and corruption, resistance in war, fascism, and the necessity of communal action for accomplishment. The Tavianis use the past to illuminate the present, show the suffering of opposing sides, and stress the major role of heritage and environment. Their characters ask questions about their lives that lead to positive solutions (and sometimes to failure). The two directors believe in the possibility of an eventual utopia.” – Lillian Schiff

Padre Padrone
Paolo Taviani & Vittorio Taviani
1977 | 114 min | Colour | Digital
Italian with English subtitles

Winner of the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, the Taviani brothers’ international breakthrough film is a potent portrait of an illiterate Sardinian shepherd who manages to escape an impoverished upbringing, brutal father, and patriarchal society via education. read more

Night of the Shooting Stars
Paolo Taviani & Vittorio Taviani
1982 | 105 min | Colour | Digital
Italian with English subtitles

It is the Night of San Lorenzo, the night when dreams come true. While watching shooting stars, Cecilia tells her son about a similar night in 1944, when she was six years old and the residents of San Martino, her small Tuscan town, defied their Nazi occupiers. read more

Kaos
Paolo Taviani & Vittorio Taviani
1984 | 183 min | Colour | Digital
Italian with English subtitles

A visually sumptuous epic consisting of four folkloric stories by Luigi Pirandello, all set in Sicily, plus a prologue and a rapturous epilogue. The tales are alternately sad, funny, lyrical, and fantastic. Political rebellion is pulled by a deeper, almost mythic pattern forged by the imagination and desire shared by two generations of revolutionaries. read more