There's a fire that burns the skin and a fire that heals it. It's called Shingles, medically known as Herpes Zoster, and it's the focus of one of the most moving ethnographic documentaries produced in Sardinia in recent years. On Friday, May 15, 2026, at 6:00 PM, in the UNLA Cultural Services Center in Oristano, "Fire Against Fire – A Healing Practice in Barbagia," a film by documentary filmmaker Ignazio Figus, produced by the Higher Regional Institute of Ethnography of Sardinia (ISRE), will be presented to the public.
Filmed in Oliena, in the heart of central-eastern Sardinia, the documentary, a 53-minute journey of meticulous ethnographic observation, follows the daily life of an elderly healer from Barbagia, the custodian of ancient knowledge and specialized in treating this painful condition through traditional medicine. "I wanted to adopt an observational approach," explains director Ignazio Figus , " to remain silent, observe, and let reality unfold before the lens without forcing it. The healer works with a disarming ease, as if what she does were the most normal thing in the world. And it is precisely this ease that I wanted to convey to the viewer ." The film documents an entire healing cycle and, through the testimonies of patients who have undergone the woman's treatments, delicately sketches her personality: a figure both humble and authoritative, rooted in tradition yet capable of responding to the needs of contemporary people. "This isn't charlatanism," Figus is keen to point out, "it's about care, in the deepest sense of the word. It's about human connection, about trust, about knowledge passed down through generations that still finds its raison d'être today."
And it is precisely around the concept of "cure" that the broader ambition of the project, developed as part of ISRE's research programs, revolves. The film aims to contribute to the reflection on the role of folk medicine in contemporary Sardinian society, questioning what it means to heal today, in an era dominated by biomedicine yet still rife with age-old questions about the body, pain, and the sacred. The recent recognition it received at the Sicilian Film Awards, where "Fuoco Contro Fuoco" won Best Film in the "Health and Medicine" section, testifies to the interest the work has generated beyond the island. "Folk medicine is not a Sardinian or Sicilian peculiarity," Figus observes, "it is a common heritage shared by many Mediterranean communities." Just yesterday, the news broke that the film had been selected for competition at the Cinemística Film Festival, the international festival dedicated to transcendental, philosophical, anthropological, and poetic cinema, whose twelfth edition will be held from June 11 to 21, 2026, in Granada, Spain.
Figus himself will be present at the Oristano screening, along with a representative from ISRE to offer an institutional greeting. " UNLA has always paid special attention to my work. Presenting my film here is very meaningful to me, because it is a center with a profound vocation for popular culture and the valorization of local knowledge, an ideal place to reflect on what we risk losing and how much, in reality, still survives. I am delighted that Oristano can be one of the places where this conversation takes place ." Admission is free, subject to availability, so we can reflect together on the fine line between science and tradition, between a changing world and enduring roots.
