Christ Stopped at Eboli is a 1979 film adaptation of the book of the same name by Carlo Levi

Carlo Levi

Dr. Carlo Levi was an Italian-Jewish painter, writer, activist, anti-fascist, and doctor.He is best known for his book Cristo si è fermato a Eboli , published in 1945, a memoir of his time spent in exile in Lucania, Italy, after being arrested in connection with his political activism...

. It was directed by Francesco Rosi

Francesco Rosi

Francesco Rosi is an Italian film director. He is the father of actress Carolina Rosi.-Biography:After studying Law, but hoping to study film, Rosi entered the industry as an assistant to Luchino Visconti on La Terra trema...

 and stars Gian Maria Volonté

Gian Maria Volontè

Gian Maria Volonté was an Italian actor. He is perhaps most famous outside of Italy for his roles as the main villain in Sergio Leone's A Fistful of Dollars and For a Few Dollars More.-Early life:Volonté was born in Milan, and graduated in Rome in 1957...

 as Carlo Levi, with Paolo Bonacelli

Paolo Bonacelli

Paolo Bonacelli is an Italian actor.He is best known for his performance as The Duke de Blangis in Pasolini's notorious Salò...

, Alain Cuny

Alain Cuny

Alain Cuny was a French actor.He was born René Xavier Marie in Saint-Malo, Brittany, and studied medicine for a while before entering the film industry as a costume and set designer. Cuny started acting in the 1930s...

, Léa Massari

Lea Massari

Anna Maria Massetani better known as Lea Massari is an Italian actress.She was born Anna Maria Massetani in Rome, but when she was 22, she changed her name to Lea Massari after the death of her fiancé Leo...

, and Irene Papas

Irene Papas

Irene Papas is a Greek actress and occasional singer, who has starred in over seventy films in a career spanning more than fifty years.-Life:...

.

It was shown out of competition at the 1979 Cannes Film Festival

1979 Cannes Film Festival

- Jury :*Françoise Sagan *Sergio Amidei *Rodolphe-Maurice Arlaud *Luis García Berlanga *Maurice Bessy *Paul Claudon *Jules Dassin *Zsolt Kézdi-Kovács...

. The film received the first BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1982.

Carlo Levi was a painter and writer, but he also had a degree in medicine. Arrested in 1935 by Mussolini's regime for his anti-Fascist activities, he was sent to live in a remote town in southern Italy, in the region of Lucania

Lucania

Lucania was an ancient district of southern Italy, extending from the Tyrrhenian Sea to the Gulf of Taranto. To the north it adjoined Campania, Samnium and Apulia, and to the south it was separated by a narrow isthmus from the district of Bruttium...

 which is known today as Basilicata

Basilicata

Basilicata , also known as Lucania, is a region in the south of Italy, bordering on Campania to the west, Apulia to the north and east, and Calabria to the south, having one short southwestern coastline on the Tyrrhenian Sea between Campania in the northwest and Calabria in the southwest, and a...

. The landscape was beautiful, the peasantry poor and neglected. Since the local doctors were not interested in peasants and not trusted by them, he began to help them.

It is a film that observes life, rather than one full of dramatic happenings. The war in Ethiopia

Second Italo-Abyssinian War

The Second Italo–Abyssinian War was a colonial war that started in October 1935 and ended in May 1936. The war was fought between the armed forces of the Kingdom of Italy and the armed forces of the Ethiopian Empire...

 is mentioned, but as something very remote. Mostly you see a very unfamiliar lifestyle.

Cast

• Gian Maria Volonté
  Gian Maria Volontè
  Gian Maria Volonté was an Italian actor. He is perhaps most famous outside of Italy for his roles as the main villain in Sergio Leone's A Fistful of Dollars and For a Few Dollars More.-Early life:Volonté was born in Milan, and graduated in Rome in 1957...
  
   as Carlo Levi
• Paolo Bonacelli
  Paolo Bonacelli
  Paolo Bonacelli is an Italian actor.He is best known for his performance as The Duke de Blangis in Pasolini's notorious Salò...
  
   as Don Luigi Magalone
• Alain Cuny
  Alain Cuny
  Alain Cuny was a French actor.He was born René Xavier Marie in Saint-Malo, Brittany, and studied medicine for a while before entering the film industry as a costume and set designer. Cuny started acting in the 1930s...
  
   as Barone Nicola Rotunno
• Lea Massari
  Lea Massari
  Anna Maria Massetani better known as Lea Massari is an Italian actress.She was born Anna Maria Massetani in Rome, but when she was 22, she changed her name to Lea Massari after the death of her fiancé Leo...
  
   as Luisa Levi
• Irene Papas
  Irene Papas
  Irene Papas is a Greek actress and occasional singer, who has starred in over seventy films in a career spanning more than fifty years.-Life:...
  
   as Giulia Venere
• François Simon
  François Simon
  François Simon is a former French professional road bicycle racer. He was professional from 1991 to 2002. He is the brother of Régis, Pascal and Jérôme, all professional cyclists. In the 2001 Tour de France, Simon wore the maillot jaune for three days and finished as best French finisher in that...
  
   as Don Traiella
• Luigi Infantino
  Luigi Infantino
  Luigi Infantino was an Italian operatic tenor, particularly associated with the lyric Italian and French repertories.Luigi Infantino studied at the Parma Conservatory with Italo Brancucci...
  
  
• Francesco Callari
• Antonio Allocca as Don Cosimino
• Enzo Vitale as Dottore Milillo (as Vincenzo Vitale)
• Maria Antonia Capotorto
• Pietro Peragine
• Vito Caraccia
• Antonio Di Leva
• Accursio Di Leo as Joiner