It is a rarer case that a film changes one's life, at least for a while. 'Padre Padrone' did it to me. The film made such an impression to me that first I read the book. Therefrom I got the details about the author's home village Siligo and its environment. As a child I was used to spend my holidays with mountain farmers, helping them here and there, thus I was familiar with rural and agricultural life.
At the time I saw 'Padre Padrone', I was 20 years old, was used to do bicycle trips in my home country, but had never gone abroad. Sardinia was only one day by railways and one night by ship away, so I decided to go there.
The first original place I came to was Sassari, where the author got his higher education and was also a professor. Some roaming through the hills brought me to his little village, Siligo. At the entrance, I noted an older man steering a cart pulled by a mule. This was not ordinary, because all other peasants used small and cheap motor-operated vehicles. Ledda's father being described as tenacious and closefisted, it is quite probable that the observed was him. But I didn't dare to ask him.
Up from the village, I pedaled through family Ledda's pasture called Baddevrústana, where I noticed again a being standing on a trail: another mule.
