These testimonies offer an authentic portrait of rural life in the post-war period, focusing on the need to transform natural resources into essential goods. The account meticulously describes the processing of hemp and nettle, vegetable fibres that were collected, macerated and combed to obtain resistant yarns.
Through the memories of a daily life marked by poverty and ingenuity, the importance of domestic weaving for the creation of fabrics and sacks emerges. The sources highlight how the land and wild plants represented a vital form of sustenance for the large families of the time.
Finally, the figure of the last weaver celebrates the sacredness of the loom and the intellectual freedom that comes from preserving ancient artisan traditions.
The fight against hunger
The post-war period is remembered as a time when one literally had to "beat hunger". Families, often large and with single parents, survived on a very poor diet: they ate chestnuts cooked in the fire and, as the only accompaniment, a thin slice of fat or a clove of garlic was used.
The experience of war and evacuation
The testimonies recall the flight to the mountains, as far as Lizzano, to escape the fighting and the German front. To get food, people had to queue beyond the front line where there were no Germans; those who arrived last often went away empty-handed.
The return to desolation
At the end of the conflict, families found the houses stripped of everything, as the Germans had requisitioned every available resource, from wheat to chickens. The recovery was slow and began with the cultivation of the vegetable garden and the sowing of hemp for domestic needs.
Isolation and self-sufficiency
Life was marked by a total lack of infrastructure; railways were distant and means of transport almost non-existent. This isolation forced communities to produce everything at home, exploiting every small available plot of land for cultivation.
The harsh conditions of agricultural work
Families were large and arable land scarce. Moreover, farmers had to give half the harvest to the landowner. Production was put at risk by harsh winters that "stole the wheat under the snow" and by the lack of chemical fertilisers, replaced only by organic ones.
In this context of resilience, the land was not just hard work, but represented identity and "home" to which one thought with nostalgia when far away.
Nettle as a resource of freedom and necessity
In an era marked by extreme poverty and isolation, where transport was almost non-existent, domestic production was the only way to satisfy primary needs. Nettle, unlike hemp, did not need to be sown: it grew spontaneously "behind walls" and in the cool, representing a free and inexhaustible resource.
Although it was considered a "poor" or annoying plant, it became fundamental for creating sacks, sheets and even clothes, thanks to its resistant and soft fibre.
The inseparable bond with the Earth and Memory
For the protagonists, like Rino Monari, the land is not just a place of work, but the "home" to which one turns one's thoughts when far away. The video documents a time when life was scandited by the cycles of nature, like the nettle harvest at the end of August and its subsequent maceration in water for twenty days.
The sacredness of craftsmanship
The figure of Rino Monari, "the last weaver of this territory", elevates weaving to a form of life philosophy. The loom is not just a mechanical tool, but an almost sacred object, linked to the tradition that wants it built in walnut wood.
Weaving is described as an act that gives freedom and "anarchy", understood as the ability to follow one's own rules and passions through the recovery of ancient fibres and designs.
Historical continuity
Through the history of the mill built in 1800 and the use of granite millstones, the video underlines the importance of preserving techniques that today risk disappearing, but which contain millennia-old knowledge about sustainability and self-sufficiency.
The video tells the transformation of a humble plant into a "thread of life" that intertwines material necessity, cultural identity and the search for individual freedom.