People Are Not Goats

1971 18mMovie

In an unusual spaghetti western setting, a man - played by Ilarion Ciobanu - returns to his home village after spending time at the front. He finds his wife in the company of another man - played by Anușavan Salamanian - who is also raising his son. The confrontation between the two is at its most intense when they exchange glances that, in Ciobanu's case, seem to be a textbook study in Clint Eastwood's taciturn protagonist from Sergio Leone's famous trilogy. In many ways, People Aren't Goats stands out among all the other student films of the period. But the point where it proves most particular is its belonging to a genre - spaghetti western - at that time still new worldwide, whose national exponent will remain Ilarion Ciobanu, through the roles he played in the singular western trilogy, released a few years later, in which the people of the Ardennes go through all sorts of adventures.