The Secret of the Old Woods (Italian: Il segreto del bosco vecchio) is a 1993 Italian fantastic drama film written, directed and starred by Ermanno Olmi.

[1] For his performance Paolo Villaggio won the Nastro d'Argento for best actor.

[2] The general Sebastiano Procolo lives in a little village in the mountains boundless, in a small wooden house near a dense forest, called the "Old Woods".

He is there on behalf of his nephew, owner of the reserve; however the general has the ambition to destroy all the trees in order to enrich.

Sebastiano initially don't understand the situation, but after as in a dream vision he realizes that these creatures have been imprisoned long ago by himself.