The constant interaction between humans, animals, plants, and the earth is pondered as a physical process as well as a philosophical allegory in this drama from Italian filmmaker Michelangelo Frammartino. An aging shepherd (Giuseppe Fuda) is watching over his herd of goats on a hilltop in a small village in Calabria. The ailing shepherd uses the floor sweepings from a nearby church as a medicine, but the treatment fails him and he dies alone. As he passes, one of his goats gives birth, and the other goats tend to the new member of the flock. While grazing, the young goat is separated from the herd, and as darkness comes it rests under a tree where it is protected from the elements. Before long, the tree falls victim to a handful of lumberjacks, and it's taken into town, where the tree is stripped of its bark, used as part of a village celebration, and eventually turned into charcoal and used as fuel. LE QUATTRO VOLTE (aka THE FOUR TIMES) received its American premiere at the 2010 New York Film Festival.