Although he began his career considerably after Luchino Visconti and Roberto Rossellini, the late Italian filmmaker Ermanno Olmi (1931-2018) directed some of the purest, most innovative expressions of neorealist cinema. Beginning with his earliest feature films, Olmi invented novel and lyrical ways of giving intimate authenticity to stories of the working class—a timid young man’s first job in Il Posto (1961), a couple’s strained relationship when the husband is transferred to a distant factory job in I Fidanzati (1963)—always grounded in a profound respect for the singular experiences of his non-actors and the unique textures of the actual places where his films take place. Olmi’s dedication to a neorealist ideal and compassion gave way to his most ambitious and politically charged project, The Tree of Wooden Clogs, a quietly epic portrait of the lives and labor of 19th century Northern Italian tenant workers. Based on stories told to Olmi by his grandmother as well as extensive historical research, the film follows the daily lives of four families working on a cascina, a traditional farm whose resident workers owe their roof and produce to the landowner. Speaking traditional Lombardian dialect, Olmi’s cast was drawn entirely from farmers asked, in essence, to recreate the lives of their distant ancestors. Balancing a documentarian’s sharp insight with a poet’s rhythmic sensibilities, Olmi leads us through the quotidian rituals that define the four seasons while capturing the small miracles that give hope and joy to the hardworking peasants and lend a spiritual air to Olmi’s extraordinary and deeply influential film.