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CUCINA POVERA - THE MAKING OF THE MEDITERRANEAN DIET

By Andreas APOSTOLIDES

FIRST HAND FILMS - as SALES All rights, World

Art - Culture - Production 2019

- Year of production
- 2019
- Genres
- Art - Culture, Historical, Documentary
- Countries
- GREECE
- Duration
- 52 mn
- Director(s)
- Andreas APOSTOLIDES
- Producer(s)
- Rea APOSTOLIDES (Anemon), Yuri AVEROF (Anemon)
- Synopsis
- A five-part series about the Mediterranean diet that uncovers why this common tradition of the poor is relevant to our lives today. With each episode we travel to a different country - Italy, Spain, Greece, Israel/Palestine and Morocco - following a main character who brings a fresh angle to the story and new understanding of Mediterranean food.
  
  The Mediterranean Diet has become extremely popular in some of the world’s most expensive Michelin-starred restaurants. This hype has been fuelled by new research proving that this diet is possibly the healthiest on the planet, reducing major chronic illnesses, obesity and depression.
  Still few of us know that it was created as a diet of the poor; a starvation diet based on a few home-grown pulses, vegetables, grains, nuts and fruits, cultivated for centuries on the shores of the Mediterranean.
  
  Our characters include a rising star in the London food scene finding inspiration on the island of Crete; a mother in Gaza overcoming food shortages with what she grows in her garden; a Berber family using wild nature to supplement a grain based diet; a public health expert fighting obesity in a Spanish factory; and a home cook who wins a Michelin star in the most remote island of Sicily.
  
  Each episode weaves together contemporary and immersive observational scenes, rare film archive about life in the Mediterranean communities and intimate encounters with a secondary cast of acclaimed chefs, village cooks and food experts.
  The series main characters allow us to experience five countries through remote villages, family feasts and home-country kitchens, while pursuing their own personal quest. They are the ‘insiders’ who bear the secrets of cucina povera. In parallel, unseen film and photographic archive of daily life in villages and cosmopolitan cities such as Alexandria, Istanbul, Palermo and Fez, offer a colorful visual layer to the series and a powerful testimony to the endurance, creativity and sense of community shared by the peoples of the Mediterranean.
  Transporting viewers across the breathtaking landscapes of the Mediterranean, the series ultimately brings to light the age-old connection that exists between nature’s raw resources, human creativity and the ritual of cooking and sharing our food, that helps us live healthier, happier and more sustainable lives.