American director Abel Ferrara will
present his documentary film Piazza Vittorio, which was screened
at the 74th Venice Film Festival last September as an
out-of-competition selection, in Rome on May 31 at the Apollo 11
cultural centre.
The film shows a Rome full of heart, where emigration,
whether hated, tolerated, or understood, in the end takes on the
capital city's spirit and becomes fully Roman.
The film takes its title from the eponymous Roman square that
has become known as a sort of cultural melting pot.
Many of the subjects interviewed in the film reflect this
reality, such as an Egyptian butcher who says he feels like a
Roman and is proud of it.
The opening scene shows an elderly Roman woman speaking in
local dialect, shouting to the migrants "you all have to go!",
adding "you've ruined Italy".
But rising above all are the many voices of the migrants
themselves, from Africa, China, South America and various Slavic
countries, some of whom have complaints, some of whom wish to
stay in Italy, and almost all of whom heap praise on Italian
cuisine.
The documentary splices in archival film footage from the
Luce Institute featuring the square's market when it was an
open-air market, as well as appearances from several of the
square's residents, including some well-known names such as
Italian director Matteo Garrone and American actor Willem Dafoe.
Garrone said he has lived there for just over 20 years
because "it's a way to live abroad", while Dafoe came to the
neighbourhood after marrying Italian director and actress Giada
Colagrande.
The film's director, Ferrara, said there are "thousands of
aspects of Italians and of Rome."
"I tell the story of the city that I experience, in the
Esquilino neighbourhood, which is at the same time both
multicultural and full of contradictions," he said.
Piazza Vittorio is produced by Andrea De Liberato's Enjoy
Movies and will hit Italian theatres in the fall, distributed by
Mariposa Cinematografica.
Mariposa will also distribute Ferrara's next work, Alive in
France, which tells the story of the director's tour of France.
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