Ideas of Order in Cinque Terre

“In November of 2004 I was invited to spend a couple of weeks in Cinque Terre, (a string of towns along Italy’s northern Mediterranean coast). The area is listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO because of its exquisite shoreline and the hill towns clustered on its rocky promontories. Indeed, one is easily overwhelmed by the place --the extraordinary beauty of the light and colour, the geometry of the towns and the incredible way humans have inhabited the landscape. Particularly beautiful to me was the train line that runs along the water’s edge and passes like a needle and thread through the mountains. Line, geometry and tones (both sound and colour), became for me the abstract power of the place. And this is what I tried to relate in my film...” (Ken Kobland)