La Duna

Emerson Culurgioni & Stefanie Schroeder
Germany | 2024 | 93 min
World premiere
Languages : Sardinian, Italian, German, English
Subtitles : English, French

Who owns the land? Legend has it that ex-prime minister Silvio Berlusconi stole a dune in Sardinia, while the locals are fighting for their land and struggling with their dependence on tourism. La Duna is an irresistibly cathartic and humorous documentary that intertwines a portrait of a community with absurd almost-fairytales.

To whom does land belong? Based on the legend that a power-obsessed former prime minister (in this case Silvio Berlusconi) stole a dune in Sardinia, La Duna explores the power struggles that permeate this territory. Beginning in classic documentary style, recording the words of a farming family – from whom co-director Emerson Culurgioni is descended – the film gradually descends into absurd fairytales and comedic touches. The cast of characters includes yachts of full-bellied tourists, a roadblock caused by a film crew shooting a car advert with a drone, NATO commanders mounting an exercise involving some not-so-fictional countries, an expropriated farmer giving the military alliance a fright, and a philosophising travelling salesman... A playful and defiantly humorous ensemble portrait that defuses the real and symbolic violence inflicted on a community.
Mourad-Anis Moussa

Stefanie Schroeder
La Duna, 2024
The Effect of Cannonry on Thunder Clouds, 2017
40h, Max. 2 Months, 2017
[ˈdʊŋkl̩ˌdɔɪ̯ʧlant], 2015

Emerson Culurgioni
La Duna, 2024
Exploitation, 2020
Habitat, 2017
Leuna, 2014