If the urban legend is to be believed, there were over 160,000 people buried or burned in plague pits (mass graves) on Povegelia. Unfortunately, the Plague killed so quickly that victims who were supposedly shipped out never returned. According to popular urban legend in Venice, plague doctors would take shiploads of plague victims out to the island to keep them away from the populace. It had formerly been an abbey or convent, and so it was equipped with a church and outbuildings to serve as a quarantine. Poveglia is situated right in the Venetian lagoon. The first of course is the island’s posting as a plague quarantine. Mengotti explained to me, in an exclusive interview with the director, that there are two persistent folktales that pertain to Poveglia’s past and its dubious use in the Middle Ages. Though small and unimposing by day, Poveliga is shrouded deep in dark mystery and legend. Some of them, like the “Octogan”, date back to the Middle Ages, when Poveglia was a small port of call for ships bearing confirmed cases of the bubonic plague. It stands tall among the many other buildings and out buildings still extant. He spent his childhood days gazing at the white-washed bell tower, which at one point had been attached to a monastery. Mengotti grew up on the large island neighboring Poveglia. The Director Director Emanuele Mengotti and Cinematographer Edoardo Emanuele on the set of The Plague Doctor. His film, The Plague Doctor, is at once an exploration of the self and a tribute to one of the world’s most famous haunted locations, the Venetian island of Poveglia. The film maker may not ever replace the greatest of our local tavern heralds, but like any story teller, the film maker has a duty to tell the stories that drive them.įor director Emanuele Mengotti, the story he is preparing to tell the world has driven him since childhood. Though we’ve not lost any of our academic appreciation for the hearthside story or campsite tall tale, it cannot be denied that we as a species have moved into the art of mass producing our spoken heritage.

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