
VERGEMOLINO
Italy | 2023 | 66 min | col.
Every year, Vergemoli, a small village on the Garfagnana mountains in Tuscany, holds the “Boccabugia,” a festival of improvised poetry. Like many other small places, Vergemoli must cope with depopulation whereas, for decades now, hundreds of people convene there to watch the amusing performance in which everyone can be a poet for one day. The festival’s host and one of its main promoters is Paolo Ruffini, who is assessing whether to buy one of the derelict buildings in need of repair. The documentary shows the preparations for and making of the 50th Boccabugia festival, but it’s really a pretext to describe the bond of Ruffini with the villagers and a timeless world in which the sense of community is still strong. Between jokes, dinners, and reunions, the frenzy for the preparation of a unique event and a historical recurrence is jazzed up by one more thing to celebrate: the birth of a new Vergemolino after a decade! (a.s.)