Cinema is a question of time. Time observed and time experienced. Time filmed that pours like the sand in an hourglass into the time of the story. Even when it suggests otherwise, a film has the task of constructing a time, of presenting it to the viewer; sometimes, and these are the best cases, this time is something more than the time needed to make a joke or move a body. Pastorale cilentana speaks precisely of this: the time of a place. Mario Martone has a close relationship with Cilento, with the history and culture of this slice of southern Italy stretched out along the sea. In the almost 20 minutes of this film he condenses much of his relationship with what is apparently a place of the soul.
