The Italian Cultural Institute of Washington presents the streaming of “I Villani”. The movie, directed by Daniele De Michele, documents the life of four seemingly unimportant characters from dusk till dawn as they go about their lives tending to their responsibilities in agriculture, fishing, livestock farming, cheese-making, and family cooking.

This is a film about four individuals’ lives, their way of being in the world, their relationship with the land they are tied to, and the history of the places they come from. It explores how their life choices impact Italian culinary heritage and encourages us to reflect on how essential they really are to Italian culinary traditions.

This movie is the result of fifteen years of research that has crystalized into a documentary that shows Daniele De Michele’s perspective on cooking traditions and the contribution of individual excellence in creating and recreating living culinary knowledge which makes Italian cuisine so special.

Italy 2018, 84 minutes, color

Language: Italian, with English subtitles