The anthropological documentary

After the war, documentary cinema that was more attentive to anthropological aspects began to make its way. And the first Sardinian authors appear, such as Enrico Costa and, above all, Fiorenzo Serra, who, with a rich cinematographic activity, surpassing the folkloric setting, made “The Last Fist of the Earth”, awarded at the Festival dei Popoli in 1965.

These are the same years in which, in all the cinemas of the world, 'Sardinia' was filmed, produced by Walt Disney for the series 'Peoples and Countries', where the people of Sardinia were homologated to the primitive peoples still inhabiting the planet.
The comparison with Fiorenzo Serra's films is merciless, as well as with Vittorio De Seta's two documentaries “Pastors of Orgosolo” and “A Day in Barbagia”, shot at the end of the 1950s with a much deeper and more current vision than the Disney spectacularization.

In the Sixties, interest was born in a new kind of social documentation that still continues. Giuseppe Ferrara with “The Pond” (1962) documents the fight of the Cabras fishermen against feudal rights; and RAI itself entrusts Giuseppe Lisi, in 1968, with an important investigation into the island's economy entitled “Inside Sardinia”.
Finally, in 1987, it was “Noistottus”, the story of the Sulcis mines, an interesting and original work by Piero D'Onofrio and Fabio Vannini for the Experimental Center for Cinematography. In this context, many contemporary Sardinian directors have had the opportunity to tell their people and their stories: among many others, Enrico Pitzianti in “Little Fishing”, a 2004 documentary film about military servitude in Sardinia.

Fiorenzo Serra: “The Last Fist of Earth”
Fiorenzo Serra, the greatest documentary filmmaker in Sardinia, died in the autumn of 2005 while designing a new work for which he planned to stay in Roman laboratories for a long time, traveling back and forth between Sassari and Rome.
He wanted to recover all the negative and positive parts of his 1964 film, “The Last Fist of the Earth”, of which only the positive copy of the Region of Sardinia now exists, to be transferred digitally. He wanted to edit a new film from the old one, reordering the clips according to a different, particular project. Above all, he wanted to insert titles, subtitles, names, captions, correct lights and “spots” to arrive at a digital master's degree that would return to us a film that had had such a troubled story in the past.

“The Last Fist of Earth” was created with the sponsorship of the Autonomous Region of Sardinia to celebrate the first Plan of Rebirth. In the 1959 regional budget bill, this title is found: “Feature film about rebirth”, and on the proposal of the Department of Rebirth, 30 million pounds are allocated for “a feature-length documentary film that meets all the requirements of spectacularity but that does not constitute a simple work of propaganda”. The work must “represent a valid and lasting document of the current economic-social and human situation of Sardinia - illustrating, starting from today's overall vision, the magnitude of the historical work that is about to be undertaken and its considerable utility for the economy, not only the national one”.
The film in question, which has the burdensome task of promoting the island invested by the Plan of Rebirth, is precisely “The Last Fist of Land”. It took two years of shooting to complete the feature film, which premiered at the Fiamma cinema in Cagliari for the Regional Council. Serra's artistic and technical commitment was appreciated, but the representation of Sardinia invested by the Plan of Rebirth could not and should not be so painful and melancholic.

Although in 1966 the film won an award at the Festival dei Popoli, the most prestigious documentary film festival in Italy, after that date it disappeared from circulation.
A letter written by Fiorenzo Serra in the late 1950s and sent to the Department of Rebirth has been found in the archives of the Presidency of the Council. The text, incorporated into a 1959 resolution that accepted the director's requests, illustrates the reasons for the film.

Letter from Fiorenzo Serra
Dessì, the film and Sardinia
'Banditi a Orgosolo' to Venice
Martin Scorsese on 'Banditi a Orgosolo'