Shoe tree

The film tells the story of several peasant families in Lombardy at the end of the 19th century . Their life is not too eventful, by and large difficult and tragic, but it also has its own little joys. The stories of families living under one roof are intertwined against the backdrop of heavy peasant everyday life.

The mother of six children, widow Runk, lost her husband and found herself in an extremely difficult situation. She moonlights as a washerwoman, and her fifteen-year-old son is hired to help the miller. Her position is so difficult that the priest offers to send younger children to the monastery, but the eldest son rejects this offer. The sudden illness of a cow can destroy the son’s resolve and still force him to accept the priest’s offer, but the cow is miraculously recovering.

There is also a semi-comic character - a roguish peasant. He constantly quarrels with his son. Deceives the landowner, putting stones in a cart with grain. At the fair, he finds gold and hides it in the hoof of his horse. And when the coin disappears, he accuses the horse of theft.

The chaste love of a peasant youth for a peasant girl working in a factory ends with the most vivid episode of the film, the wedding and the trip of the newlyweds to Milan for an aunt. Aunt - a nun working in an orphanage, invites the newlyweds to adopt a foundling, the son of wealthy parents, and a good allowance is due for him. They agree.

The central character of the film is the peasant Batista, a talented storyteller, brightening up the evenings with tales to the neighbors of scary stories. He is a loving father and husband. When his wife is expecting a third child, he is ready to give the last money to invite an obstetrician . But the wife copes with the help of neighbors. The priest recommends sending Batista's son, Minek, to school. Father reluctantly agrees. One day, returning from school, Minek breaks a shoe. Batisti secretly cuts down the master tree to fix the shoe. The manager finds out about this, and the landowner banishes Batista from the house. Having collected all his simple belongings, the Batisti family goes into the unknown.

The idea of ​​the film came to Olmi's mind twenty years before the filming began. It was based on a story that his grandfather told him. The filming was preceded by a long preparatory period. Olmi lived for several months in the village and talked with many peasants, many of whom became actors in his film.

Olmi started filming without a clear script. Dialogues and actions were largely an actor’s improvisation. Sound was recorded directly on the set, which was rare for Italian cinema of that time. The director insisted on using only the Bergamic dialect, although later, for marketing reasons, he had to release the Italian version.

The film "A tree for shoes" was released at the same time as Bertolucci 's film " 1900 " with a similar theme. But the film Olmi attracted more attention and caused a lot of enthusiastic reviews. Having received the golden palm branch at the Cannes Film Festival, he was proclaimed a masterpiece. On the other hand, a number of critics accused Olmi of an egocentric and shortsighted vision of history based on nostalgia, denying historical and social problems, finding refuge in severe Catholicism.

The most controversy was caused by the episode with the miraculous healing of the cow. In a single mother, existing on the verge of survival, a cow falls ill, complicating the already difficult situation of a woman. Veterinarian predicts the imminent death of a cow. But prayers and holy water raise the cow to its feet.

But regardless of ideological beliefs, everyone noted the visual perfection of the picture.

The painting won the Golden Palm Branch and the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury of the Cannes Film Festival (1978), the David di Donatello Prize (1979), the Cesar Prize (1979) and a number of other awards.

• Elaine Mancini. L'Albero Degli Zoccoli // International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers / under. Ed Tom Pendergast, Sara Pendergast. - 4th. - USA: St. James Press, 2000. - T. 1. - S. 26-28. - ISBN 1-55862-449-X .
• Vladislav Shuvalov. A shoe tree (L'Albero degli zoccoli) - Ermanno Olmi, 1978 (neopr.) . CINEMATICS (May 20, 2008). Date of treatment November 2, 2010. Archived on February 26, 2012.

• The Shoe Tree on the Internet Movie Database   (Retrieved April 25, 2012)
• The Shoe Tree on the Rotten Tomatoes website   (Retrieved April 25, 2012)
• Shoe tree (English) on allmovie   (Retrieved April 25, 2012)