De Seta, Vittorio

(1923-)

   Director and screenwriter. Following an apprenticeship as assistant to French filmmaker Jean-Paul Le Chanois, in 1954 De Seta began making a series of prize-winning documentary films on the lives of fishermen and shepherds of both his native Sicily and Sardinia, which included Lu tempu de li pisci spata (Swordfish Season, 1954), Sulfarara (Sulphur Mine, 1955), Pasqua in Sicilia (Easter in Sicily, 1955), Contadini del mare (Farmers of the Sea, 1955), and Pastori di Orgosolo (Shepherds of Orgosolo, 1958). Socially committed but also highly lyrical documentaries, they demonstrate the strong influence of Robert Flaherty. This influence was carried over into his first fictional feature, I banditi di Orgosolo (Bandits at Orgosolo, 1961), made in collaboration with his wife but produced, photographed, and edited by De Seta himself. The film presents, with compassion but without sentimentality, the tragic plight of a poor shepherd forced by circumstances to become a bandit and to lose all his sheep, one by one. The film's austere lyricism earned De Seta the prize for a first work at the Venice Festival in 1961 and a Nastro d'argento for photography.

   In 1965 he made his second fictional feature, Un uomo a meta (Almost a Man), the moving portrayal of a young writer's descent into madness. After a third feature, L'invitata (The Uninvited, 1969), he produced Diario di un maestro (A Teacher's Diary, 1973), a four-episode miniseries for television that ignited great discussion and controversy regarding the Italian school system. There followed two other documentaries for Italian television, Hong Kong, citta di profughi (Hong Kong, City of Refugees, 1980) and In Calabria, a three-part documentary for Raidue made in 1993. After a long absence, De Seta returned to Sicily in 2002 to make a documentary on the life and work of anthropologist Antonino Uccello.