Quando l'Italia non era un paese povero

Documentary about the quest for Joris Ivens‘s film. The Nederlands Film Museum owns three copies of the film, but does not have the original negatives. The Taviani brothers, Valentino Orsini and other people involved tell about the realisation of this lost film. In 1959 Italy was a poor country, but it seemed to slowly overcome its poverty. In Ferrandina gas had been discovered, Gela had oil wells and all pipes were ready to distribute these natural fuels. Ivens was commissioned to film these industries, but he also registered the poverty of the real Italy. The management of the RAI broadcasting network rejected his imagery of poverty, flies and misery. When they more or less confiscated the film and his producer Mattei dropped the project for political reasons Ivens, who had been working on the film for one year, decided to steal the film cans.