“Il tempo dei giganti”. A mosaic of minute stories for a film-documentary account of the Xylella case in Salento

The paper aims to encourage a critical reflection on the use of visual tools, with particular reference to the language of film-documentary, to explore the social perception of the phytosanitary disaster underway in Puglia, known by the name of the pathogen that was its cause, Xylella fastidiosa (Wells et al., 1987; Saponari et al., 2017, Morelli et al., 2021). Since 2013, the year of its first appearance in Salento, estimates record a propagation that has affected about 750,000 hectares of olive groves throughout Puglia, causing the desiccation of vast expanses of centuries-old olive trees, a landscape and natural heritage of immeasurable value and, moreover, an identity reference for Salento peninsula. Starting from the analysis of a case study offered by the recent documentary Il tempo dei giganti, a rich mosaic of minute stories regarding the outbreak –the intention is to observe not the ontology of the phenomenon, but rather the conflict of interpretations generated by it, understood as a field of dialectic formation of reading vectors and interpretative regimes. Finally, we will reflect on possible future scenarios and on the need for a rethinking of Puglian agricultural models that take into account the morphological, soil and climatic characteristics of the region, in order to guarantee the protection and safeguarding of biodiversity to make Salento a true laboratory of sustainability. This will help local actors and the population, to rebuild after the catastrophe and rethink the landscape, agriculture and practices.