Elia is the last resident of what remains of Provvidenza, a ghost town brought to rubble by an earthquake many years before. The rest of the community have preferred to forget, to continue life elsewhere, but not him. Stubbornly he continues in his mission to keep the memory alive, collecting mementoes and fragments of the stories that filled the town when they come to the surface here and there, in the shape of abandoned objects or drawings by the children who went to the collapsed school. Provvidenza is the result of long research into the many ghost towns in Southern Italy. Eventually, the director chose Apice Vecchia, a hamlet close to Benevento that is suspended in time, abandoned after the earthquakes of 1962 and 1980. Everything in the ruins is still. A deserted square and several broken signs (Billiardi, Salone) bear witness to a time gone by, as does the large canvas, bearing a photograph of what the village was like, set up for the benefit of the tourists who are brought in by the group, by Elia’s friend Gesauldo.
The film also used several locations in the area around Bari: Elia’s house is in Gravina di Puglia, a town that stretches along the edge of a gorge over 100m deep. Other scenes were shot in the open area near the Church-Cave Madonna della Stella, which looms over the hamlet perched on the gorge, and in the ancient neighbourhood of Fondovito-San Michele, south-west of the residential centre of Gravina, considered to be protected by St. Michael Archangel.
Elia is the last resident of what remains of Provvidenza, a ghost town brought to rubble by an earthquake many years before. The rest of the community have preferred to forget, to continue life elsewhere, but not him. Stubbornly he continues in his mission to keep the memory alive, collecting mementoes and fragments of the stories that filled the town when they come to the surface here and there, in the shape of abandoned objects or drawings by the children who went to the collapsed school. Provvidenza is the result of long research into the many ghost towns in Southern Italy. Eventually, the director chose Apice Vecchia, a hamlet close to Benevento that is suspended in time, abandoned after the earthquakes of 1962 and 1980. Everything in the ruins is still. A deserted square and several broken signs (Billiardi, Salone) bear witness to a time gone by, as does the large canvas, bearing a photograph of what the village was like, set up for the benefit of the tourists who are brought in by the group, by Elia’s friend Gesauldo.
The film also used several locations in the area around Bari: Elia’s house is in Gravina di Puglia, a town that stretches along the edge of a gorge over 100m deep. Other scenes were shot in the open area near the Church-Cave Madonna della Stella, which looms over the hamlet perched on the gorge, and in the ancient neighbourhood of Fondovito-San Michele, south-west of the residential centre of Gravina, considered to be protected by St. Michael Archangel.
Elia is the last resident of Provvidenza, a village destroyed by an earthquake. Unable to forget his wife who lost her life amidst the rubble, he stubbornly decides to defend the memory of the village and refuses to follow the rest of the community who, in moving to “Nuova Provvidenza”, have preferred to forget.
