Bandits of Orgosolo

1961

1h 38m

Drama

List

100%

Tomatometer

10 Reviews

91%

Popcornmeter

100+ Ratings

Gangsters and thugs run the small Sardinian town of Orgosolo, a place where crime proliferates despite the picturesque views afforded by the local geography. This is the harsh reality of daily life for a local shepherd (Michele Cossu) who tries to keep to himself but is eventually accused of theft and murder. Rather than try his luck with the crime bosses, he flees to the mountains to try to escape his fate, a task that proves more difficult than originally planned.

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Jake Cole

Slant Magazine

Documentarian Vittorio De Seta’s first narrative feature, Bandits of Orgosolo, builds upon several of the director’s shorts about the Sardinian region where the film is set.

Jun 24, 2024

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Anton Bitel

Little White Lies

“I don’t have a choice anymore,” says Michele near the film’s end — and that sense of inevitability is what gives De Seca’s anthropological observations such a tragic trajectory.

Jun 20, 2024

Full Review

Variety Staff

Variety

It's a director's picture all the way, and a brilliant start for De Seta who, though he doesn't entirely attain the stature of a Robert Flaherty, hits the mark with his pure treatment of elemental themes of man and nature.

Mar 26, 2009

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Eddie Harrison

film-authority.com

…Vittorio DeSeta’s 1961 countryside drama has a low-stakes, survivalist feel…moves towards a predictably downbeat conclusion with methodical attention to detail…

Rated: 4/5

Jul 20, 2024

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Emilie Black

Cinema Crazed

... a prime example of a performance-driven film, one that looks and sounds great as well.

Rated: 4/5

Jun 26, 2024

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Penelope Gilliatt

Observer (UK)

The photography, also de Seta's, is as hard as a fist, and the director treats his characters with their own gravity and observant respect. There is not an ounce of indulgence on the whole lean film.

Mar 6, 2024

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Audience Member

Set beautifully in the mountainous Sardinia, Bandits of Orgosolo is the journey of a pleasant and honest man being driven to drastic alternatives. Featuring a humanistic struggle against unfortunate formidability and the tragedy of delinquent inheritance, which is very similar to Milcho Manchevski's depiction of violence in Before the Rain more than 30 years later. The orchestrated predicament is a revelation of historical tragedy.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

02/25/23

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Audience Member

Stunning example of neo realism.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/04/23

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Audience Member

A wonderful movie about a world which has now totally disappeared: the traditional Mediterranean society. Honor was at its center, and honor was to be defended at all costs whatever the law said. The film itself seems to be a die hard neorealist piece with all the qualities of its forefathers. In a way, it is a rural version of Ladri di Bicicletta. It is a touching story, a great work of art (at points you feel in the bush with the characters about to eat their cheese) and a rare documentary about those modernity overtook long ago.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

02/10/23

Full Review

Audience Member

A wonderful realistic representation of the folkloric but all too real Mediterranean character: the bandit of honor. A man forced out lawlessness and into the wild by an uncompromising legal system made by and for those living in big cities and yet enforced mercilessly by the violent police forces.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/15/23

Full Review

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Vittorio De Seta

Director

Peppeddu Cuccu

Peppeddu Cossu

Michele Cossu

Michele Cossu

Vittorina Pisano

Mintonia

Vittorio De Seta

Writer

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Synopsis

Gangsters and thugs run the small Sardinian town of Orgosolo, a place where crime proliferates despite the picturesque views afforded by the local geography. This is the harsh reality of daily life for a local shepherd (Michele Cossu) who tries to keep to himself but is eventually accused of theft and murder. Rather than try his luck with the crime bosses, he flees to the mountains to try to escape his fate, a task that proves more difficult than originally planned.

Director: Vittorio De Seta
Screenwriter: Vittorio De Seta
Genre: Drama
Original Language: Italian
Runtime: 1h 38m

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