PRODUCTIONS: MIMOZA AND THE MULBERRIES

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Luigi Cammarota

SD Cinematografica

43 min.

HD

Albania, Scutari district. Mimoza is probably the last woman in Europe to take care of the complete silk cycle, from the breeding of worms to spinning and weaving, with which she makes traditional clothes to the frame. Weaves fine linen for wedding kits, tablecloths, shirts, undercarves, scarves and scarves, following the method practiced for centuries in the Western Balkans, inherited from her mother. Once in his village, every family owned mulberry trees and raised silkworms. Then, because of a parasite but especially to the competition of China, this tradition has gradually disappeared. As had happened in Italy, at the beginning of the twentieth century.
Mimoza wants to take that tradition back by involving the other women in the village. In spring he wanders around in search of abandoned mulberities, collecting the leaves to feed the worms. In the breeding helps Lejla, a retired entomologist from Tirana, the highest Albanian expert of bees and silkworm, who for passion and nostalgia takes care of the larvae and keeps them alive during the winter ... in the refrigerator at home. Then, between April and May, he incubates the eggs and follows the birth of the worms, which he entrusts to Mimosa for the growth phase until the formation of cocoons.