The first public screening of the film “Ziu Paddori”, inspired by the popular figure born from the imagination of Efisio Vincenzo Melis, a playwright born in Guamaggiore at the end of the 19th century, was a success. There had never been a cinematic transposition of the comedy of the Sardinian popular theater. «The story of Paddori in the film is told through the shots of the places where the daily life of that period took place - says the director Marco Melis -, through the magic of cinema we wanted to propose a journey back in time to our Trexenta with the peculiar representation of uses and customs, arts, crafts and various popular beliefs».
The success with the public rewarded the commitment of the technical cast and the artistic cast, the latter composed of non-professional actors (Gigi Mascia, Chiara Marongiu, Raffaele Atzori, Ignazio Serra, Laura Usai, Cherubino Mungianu, Annamaria Zedda, Gesuina Congiu and Sandro Congiu) as in the tradition of Italian neorealist cinema of the post-war period. Representatives of the local administrations of the territory were also present at the premiere, held in the municipal theater of Guamaggiore. The film was born from the collaboration between the cultural association PianetaWeb of Senorbì and the cultural association Gu@maggiore, with the patronage of the Municipality of Guamaggiore.
The popular figure of Paddori, a typical Sardinian shepherd between the 19th and 20th centuries, who became almost a mask like those of the commedia dell'arte, has often been discussed by Sardinian intellectuals, such as Francesco Masala, Michelangelo Pira, Giulio Angioni, Sergio Bullegas, with regard to his socio-cultural and Sardinian identity representativeness.
