Taken simply, this is a poetic treatise on the cycle of life that centres on an ailing goatherd and one of his mischievous flock, a felled fir tree and a charcoal kiln. However, Michelangelo Frammartino also shows how the changing seasons in a remote part of Calabria help explain Pythagoras's concepts of transmigration and the indivisibility of matter. It sounds forbidding, but the director draws on his own local knowledge and the distinctive styles of Robert Bresson and Jacques Tati to fashion a study of faith, ritual, nature and folklore that is both profoundly moving and delightfully droll. The scenes of ageing Giuseppe Fuda swallowing church dust to counter a niggling cough are matched for poignancy by the fate of the lost kid goat. A long take capturing a Good Friday procession is both amusing and accomplished, while the constant juxtaposition of animal, vegetable and mineral is as sublime as Andrea Locatelli's glorious photography. In short, this is a masterpiece.