It happens that when a small town becomes a steady destination of a tourism that seems almost like a pilgrimage, tourism itself might become so invasive to distort the soul of that place and to compromise its balance.

This is the case of Cortona, an old village in Tuscany, which became famous thanks to the success of the best seller “Under the Tuscan Sun” written by Frances Mayes.

The Genius of a Place is an independent documentary, realized by Sarah Marder and Olo Creative Farm, in which the director has followed for five years the life of the inhabitants of the village, investigating the economic development brought by tourism and its related problems.