Il sentiero delle belve: A Dusty Trip Into Nowhere

Is it worth your time?

Honestly, unless you are a die-hard fan of vintage travelogues or have a weirdly specific obsession with early 20th-century field recordings, you can skip this. It’s for the historians and the people who enjoy staring at flickering shadows on a wall. If you want a plot that moves, or characters who actually talk, you will probably hate every second of this silent, dusty ordeal. 🌵

It feels less like a movie and more like a collection of clips Zammarano found in his attic. There is no real narrative arc, just a guy walking through the wilderness looking for beasts that rarely show up.

Odd moments that stuck

• The silence is heavy. It makes you realize how much we rely on modern soundtracks to tell us how to feel.
• The way the light hits the foliage in the middle sequence is surprisingly nice, even if it lasts way too long.
• I’m pretty sure I saw a bird fly past the frame that wasn't supposed to be there. 🐦

It reminded me a bit of the aimless wandering you see in The Devil's Trail, though with significantly fewer thrills. Everything here feels like it’s being held together by duct tape and sheer patience.

The pacing is… well, there is no pacing. It just happens at its own pace. Sometimes you’re looking at a rock for ten seconds, and then the cut happens so fast you get whiplash. It’s not smooth. It’s definitely not professional.

Watching this made me think about films like Pan, where the environment is supposed to be a character, but here, the environment is just a backdrop that doesn't really care that you're watching. It’s indifferent.

It’s not a masterpiece. It’s not even a particularly good documentary. But there is something honest about how raw it is. No fancy lighting. No staged drama. Just a guy, a camera, and a lot of dirt.

Would I watch it again? Not in a million years. Did I feel like I was there in the thick of it? Maybe for a minute. Then the flickering got to my eyes and I needed a nap. 😴