Lost and Beautiful

“A layered, labyrinthine meditation on Italy, failure, and the need to continue moving forward.”—New York Times

Lost and Beautiful begins as a gently unfolding documentary about Tommaso Cestrone, a farmer in Italy’s Campania region who selflessly cares for an abandoned Bourbon palace. When his subject suddenly dies, director Pietro Marcello introduces a mythical new character who wanders the Italian countryside in search of a home for the buffalo calf that belonged to Cestrone. At times neorealist, at others transporting fantasy, Lost and Beautiful is a moving contemporary example of cinema as pure poetry. (87 mins., DCP)