Innesti

An entire ecosystem survives unchanged on the slopes of the Mongia Valley, on the border between Piedmont and Liguria. It is the natural environment of the chestnut grove: a metaphor of integration between humans and nature. A unique heritage of knowledge passed down from generation to generation. There are many traditions around chestnut growing; marked by the changing of seasons and the arrival of the pickers, “castagnere”, for the harvest, it shapes a territory which otherwise would be wild and poor. Ettore Bozzolo is one of the last guardians of this centuries-old tradition, depicted throughout the documentary. It all started in April 2000, when he gifted his son Sandro with a camera, so that he could film the pruning of the great tree standing in the heart of the forest. This documentary records 20 years of chestnut growing, with a constant theme of regeneration: a branch grafted on to a tree stump sprouts green leaves; new generations arrive to revive traditions that seemed destined to die out.