The Tree of Wooden Clogs is empathetic to its peasants without sentimentalizing poverty. It appears on an Arts & Faith list for the first time in 2020, testifying to the influence of the Criterion Collection for nudging world cinema’s gems into our consciousness. There are hints of revolution, and a more modern film might have built a more overt conflict between classes into the plot. But there is a listlessness and a fatalism that poverty and/or dependence bring that is recognizable regardless of the time period. Set in 1898, the film reminds us that ways of social division are as much part of our imminent past as our distant history. — Kenneth R. Morefield
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