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The America-Italy Society of Philadelphia presents
A Seasonal Program of Italian Films
2008-2009 Series
On selected Thursday at 6:00
p.m. - Admission Free.
For more information and RSVP at: 215-735-3250.
Door close at 5:50 p.m. – We have new
equipment!
RSVP:
SEATS WILL BE RESERVED ONLY FOR MEMBERS AND STUDENTS

January 15, 2009
In Memory of
Me/In memoria di me
dir. Saverio Costanza , 2007, Italy, 115 mins., DVD, Color, In Italian w/ English subtitles
What is it that causes a young man to enter the priesthood?
Is it a calling from God? Is it a desire to turn ones back on the confusing possibilities of the world and seek the Truth?
Is it faith – or is it pride? “Who am I and why have I come here?” asks novitiate Andrea (Christo Zhirko)
as he enters the austere Venetian seminary that becomes the start of his spiritual quest. The immense vaulted corridor of
the Renaissance building houses the rooms of the monks-in-training. It soon becomes clear to the viewer, however, that the
imposing corridor also reflects the conflict within Andrea. It is both his conscious and unconscious mind, at times telling
of the real happenings in his life, and at times suggesting the murky workings of his interior world. Andrea becomes silently
drawn to the troubled novice Fausto (Fausto Russo Alesi), who rooms next door, and the rebellious Zanna (Filipo Timi), whose
sincere beliefs make Andrea’s own struggle seem feigned. Director Saverio Costanzo comments, “ Andrea’s
condition is similar to my own and also that of my generation…We have followed our desires, only to end up in a limbo
of never ending adolescence…I think initiation into religious life can be a metaphor for any big life choice which
involves a major commitment… Anyone aspiring to solid, perfect faith must take into account his own human nature and
the demons always ready to tempt one astray.”

February 19, 2009
The Miracle/
Il miracolo
dir. Eduoardo Winspeare, 2003, Italy, 93 mins., DVD, Color, In Italian w/ English subtitles
Tonio (Claudio D’Agostino) is a twelve-year-old boy
who is troubled by the increasing arguments between his parents. One day, while riding his bicycle, he is struck by a car.
The driver of the car, stops, gets out, glances at him, and then leaves the scene. As he lies there in a semi-conscious state
he sees a bright light, and then passes out. Later Cinzia (Stefania Casciaro), the driver, comes to the hospital to see if
Tonio is all right, but flees when he recognizes her. That night, Tonio can’t sleep. As he wanders the wards, he comes
upon a room where an elderly patient begins to flatline. He touches the old man’s chest, and suddenly the man revives.
Was it a miracle? Did Tonio gain the power to heal when he saw the mysterious light? His father, Pietro (Carlo Bruni) explores
the financial gain from his son’s experience, while his mother, Annalisa (Anna Ferruzzo), exploits the media’s
interest. Tonio and Cinzia, meanwhile, are drawn together in a bond that rests on their disillusionment and hope. Director
Edouardo Winspeare’s The Miracle is neither fraught with miraculous happenings, nor is it overtly religious. It is a
film about the power of love and the beauty that happens every day. The Miracle is bathed in the light of southern Italy,
tempered with the industrial contradictions of coastal Taranto. As Winspeare says, “…it is Puglia’s most
beautiful and most wounded city. Taranto…is symbolic of the search for a lost identity.

March 12, 2009
The Lark Farm/La
masseria delle allodole
dir., Paolo and Vittorio Taviani, 2007, Italy, 122 mins., DVD, Color, In Italian w/
English subtitles
In 1915, as the war in Europe
edged closer to home, the cry of “Turkey for the Turkish” had an increasingly broad appeal, feeding the nation’s
paranoia and uniting the various Fascist elements within Turkish society. The Armenians living inside the Ottoman Empire’s
borders felt reasonably safe. Many of the families were successfully integrated. They were, to all intents, spared political
shifts in opinion. Yet, between 1915 and 1917, more than a million Armenians were killed. In the wealthy home of Aram Avakian
(Tcheky Karyo) and his wife, Armineh (Arsinee Khanjian), the advancing threat of a holocaust is ignored. They are readying
their country estate for the arrival of Aram’s brother, Assadour (Mariano Rigillo). Before he arrives, however, Lark
Farm becomes the scene of a horrid massacre. The men are mutilated, the male children are murdered, and the women begin their
forced march into the desert where they are used as prostitutes and then left to die. Directors Paolo and Vittorio Taviani
have made an unforgettable indictment of what has recently become the subject of global concern. Known for their imaginative
treatment of history in such films as Padre Padrone and Chaos, the Tavianis do not spare any of the heart-wrenching
details of the Armenians’ suffering. The directors bring with them their fine technical staff; Giuseppe Lanci’s
remarkable cinematography, Lina Nerli Taviani’s costumes, and Andrea Chrisanti’s sets, all of which breathe life
into a past which still must haunt us today.

April 16, 2009
Stolen Childhood/Certi
bambini
dir., Andrea & Antonio Frazzi 2007, Italy, 94 mins., DVD, Color, In Italian w/ English subtitles
From the Favelas in Rio to the outskirts of Marseille to
the inner cities here in the United States, we are shocked and dismayed to learn of the crimes committed by the very young,
crimes done with cold dispassion and no remorse. Eleven year old Rosario (Gianluca Di Gennaro) and his aging grandmother (Nuccia
Fumo) live in a slum on the outskirts of Naples where his belonging to a gang is his means of survival. In the opening scene
of Stolen Childhood, Rosario and his friends play a harrowing game in which they dare each other to race across a
busy highway. He performs with the same indifference acts of crime and those of generosity. There is no black versus white
in his universe; the street provides the law, and survival of the fittest is the only truth. Rosario’s story is told
in a series of flashbacks as he rides on the metro, ostensibly to a football match. The implications of his future become
clearer and clearer as we see him being groomed for the local camorra. At the same time, however, he volunteers for his friend
Santino (Arturo Paglia) to help out at a local home for battered women. There he meets Caterina (Miriam Candurro) on whom
he develops an ill-fated crush, for love is something that only disappoints and friendship is a lie. Stolen Childhood
is not a didactic film. It tries to explain nothing. We are shown only a violated childhood and its problematic conclusions.

May 7, 2009
Secret Journey/Viaggio
segreto
dir., Roberto Andò, 2006, Italy, 107 mins., DVD, Color, In Italian w/ English subtitles
There is no journey more secret than that which undertakes
to uncover the hidden recesses of the human mind. Perhaps that is the reason why Leo (Alessio Boni) has chosen psychoanalysis
as his field, or, perhaps it is his way of keeping his own secrets carefully hidden. As children, Leo and his sister, Ale
(Valeria Solarino), were witnesses to the fatal shooting of their mother, Adele (Claudia Gerini). Their father, Michele (Marco
Baliani), spent 12 years in prison, and the children spent the remainder of their childhood with relatives, far from their
home in Sicily, far, it was hoped, from the memories of that tragic event. Ale, however, has now met a Serbian artist who
hopes to marry her. As a wedding gift, Harold (Emir Kusturica) has decided to buy her the home in which she once lived. He
secretly employs Anna (Donatella Finocchiaro), a Sicilian realtor, to investigate the history of what had occurred there.
Leo discovers the potential sale and is forced to visit the home and the dark and hidden memories that are shrouded only by
a thin veil of forgetfulness. Director Roberto Ando and screenwriter Salvatore Marcarelli worked closely together on the script
because both felt personally very connected to the theme. Ando says, “The journey of the characters in this film is,
in fact, a journey in answer to the irresistible call of feelings and emotions…the indestructible, unalienable desire
to rebuild…a geography of the soul, whose elements we search for all our lives.”

June 11, 2009
My Brother-in-law/Mio
cognato
dir. Alessandro Piva , 2007, Italy, 90 mins., DVD, Color, In Italian w/ English subtitles
Vito Quaranta (Luigi Lo Cascio) is an ordinary guy with an
ordinary life. He is invited to Bari by his wife’s brother, Toni Catapano (Sergio Rubini), to attend the christening
of his baby. Vito is angered by the fact that he was not chosen as the child’s godfather. His anger grows into helpless
rage when he discovers that his car has been stolen, and in its place, the thieves have left a large, yellow, metaphorical,
lemon. Vito reports the theft to his insurance company. He quickly learns, however, that this is a big mistake in the world
he has entered. His brother-in-law is astounded. One doesn’t officially tell the insurance company anything until the
affair is manipulated behind the scenes. Vito is in Toni’s underworld now, a Bari governed by codes with which Toni
is absolutely familiar and Vito, with his proper behavior and pure Italian is constantly being mistaken for a tourist. They
set off in Toni’s flashy red sports car to search the dark streets for the missing vehicle, and Vito begins his education.
He learns another way of life, a way he finds somehow seductive, somehow liberating – somehow more like Toni’s.
Director Alessandro Piva, whose first work, La Capagira, has returned to Bari to create this fond homage to the great
tradition of Italian comedy. My Brother-in-law/Mio cognato both recalls and updates the commedia all’italiana
in a portrait of a marginal world that is the true mirror of reality.
Seating will be limited. R.S.V.P.
The America Italy Society of Philadelphia
1420 Walnut Street Suite 310
Philadelphia, PA 19102
Tel (215) 735-3250
Fax (215) 735-7604
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