A Minimalist Poem of Sand and Silence

Review of the short film Il senso della terra (The Sense of Earth)

The short film Il senso della Terra (English title: The Sense of Earth), directed by Alessandro Ingaria and Simone Massi, screened in the non-competing short film section of the Venice Film Festival (Orizzonti). It follows a doctor who works in what appears to be a temporary desert camp, responsible for handling corpses. The film begins in a somewhat dreamlike atmosphere before drawing us into its central character. Until the midpoint we do not know where this body (which will presumably be followed by others) has come from or why the makeshift camp has been set up. Once that reason is revealed, the film’s language shifts. It is an exquisitely crafted, delicate work that builds and sustains its world with a minimalist sensibility, while also offering a poetic gaze on the situation—most notably in the sand discovered in the deceased man’s pocket.