The Tree of Wooden Clogs

On a northern Italian farm in the late 19th century, a group of sharecroppers eke out a threadbare existence. A priest advises Batisti (Luigi Ornaghi) and his wife, Batistina (Francesca Moriggi), that their young son, Minec (Omar Brignoli), should be formally educated, so they sacrifice his help in the fields and send him to school. When Minec's wooden shoe breaks one day, Batisti--in an act of desperation--puts the family's future at risk to replace the clog. …