A talent of Calabria protagonist of a journey into the historical-cultural heritage of the region, between documentary and fiction, reality and dream. Giulia Petrungaro is Arianna in “Looking for Ithaca”, Docufilm by Sergio Basso, today in the room after the release of the past few days in Calabriawith the Pega Production of the Reggio area Giuseppe Gambacorta, creator and producer of the project, made with the contribution of the Calabria Film Commission and Ministry of Culture Foundation.
The face of two Sicilian characters in as many titles of Rai1 – Elena Montemurro of “The Paradise of the Ladies” and Elena Privitera of “Sleeping Nymph” – The actress from Cosenza di Fiumefreddo Bruzio plays an orphan returned to Calabria by Hamburg after the disappearance of the grandmother, who meets Ulysses on the beach, the traveler par excellence, to whom Eugenio Mastrandrea gives face. Captain Diego Martini of “Don Matteo”). A meeting perhaps dreamlike, perhaps real between two characters apparently at the antipodes, protagonists of a journey in search of Teagene of Reggio, philologist and grammatic Ghost Writer of Homer, to induce him to change the Odyssey ending.
Written by the director with Filippo Ascione (screenwriter and former assistant directed by Federico Fellini), “looking for Ithaca” represented a real return home for Petrungaro, who also played a siren in a dreamlike sequence shot in the water and spoken, in some scenes, the Greek dialect of the Bovesìa, under the guidance of the director. “Arianna is a person who has lost everything – he tells us – including love for his land, and the meeting with Ulysses will come just when he needs to find his Ithaca”.
In the film, the rediscovery of history, myth and culture of the region becomes in fact the discovery of an even personal identity. “” Looking for Ithaca “is not looking for the goal, rather a way of living the journey -he continues -. We often have the habit of thinking what awaits us when we get to the landing. Instead, as Homer sing and the poet Konstantinos Kavafis, mentioned in the film, we must think that the journey is a path and everything that happens, including difficulties, is itself a path ».
Stages of the journey, in addition to Reggio Calabria and Villa San Giovanni (Punta Piece and Cannitello), Scilla, Palmi, Melicuccà, Riace, Pentidattilo. And, moreover, Capo Vaticano, the Scolacium park of Roccelletta (Catanzaro), the Aspromonte and Capo Colonna.
But how much can this immense heritage offer young people looking for work, forced to leave as the protagonist? «The beauty and history of the territory that we tell in the film are part of those attractive elements of Calabria, together with the good food, the sea and the reception capacity of a region that makes you feel immediately at home. If exploited at best, they could lead to something positive ».
In the docufilm also interventions by experts, scholars and professionals, including the entrepreneur Villese Gaetano Bevacqua, the Crotone sociologist Filippo Sestito, the agronomist Reggio of Melito Porto Salvo Salvo Rosario Previtra and the Marsalian teacher Pietro Li Causi (University of Siena).
“Looking for Itaca” also sees Giorgio Colangeli, Daphne Scoccia, Francesca Della Ragione, the actress of Cosenza di Spezzano Albanese Anna Maria De Luca and the Reggine Silvana Luppino and Francesca Tiziana Russo (finalist at Miss Italy 2020) also in the cast.