AllMovie

Filmmaker Peter Schreiner offers an intimate look at a small village where a bit of the past refuses to go away in this documentary. Sappada is a town in the mountains of Italy where a number of people still speak the language of Plodar, which has been abandoned nearly everywhere else. Giuliana Pachner was born in Sappada but left to attend college, where she received a degree in linguistics. Realizing what a rare opportunity her hometown presented to someone with an interest in rare languages, Pachner returned to Sappada. Pachner lives there to this day, though the isolation of the community adds to her lingering depression. In addition to Pachner, Schreiner also profiles two of her relatives who run the village's Bellavista Hotel, a beautiful but decaying facility that seems to symbolize Sappada's fascinating past and bleak future. Bellavista received its premiere at the 2007 Rotterdam Film Festival.