Sulla Terra del rimorso

Based on Ernesto De Martino’s work « Terra del rimorso »(« Land of remorse »), this film studies the development of « tarantism », or the rite of the tarantula, amongst the peasants of the Apulia region in Southern Italy. This ethnographic phenomenon, which is closely linked to sexual phobia and was widespread in the sixties, is very much on the decline, as is demonstrated by the visual comparison of two different periods (excerpts from « La Taranta », made by the same director en 1962).