The burning fire of the myth, the thin and suspended border between dream and reality opens the doors on the colors of the land and the sea of Calabria. Here is the movie “Looking for Ithaca”original and current reinterpretation of the myth of Ulysses and its eternal search for the house, happiness, the strength to rediscover themselves transformed through the journey by finding the authentic sense of one’s existence.
The film – directed by Sergio Basso With Eugenio Mastrandrea, Giulia Petrungaro, Giorgio Colangeli, Daphne Scoccia, Francesca Della Ragione, Lena Sebasti, Margherita Ceodesina Pola, Silvana Luppino, Anna Maria De Luca and Francesca Tiziana Russo – is scripted by the same Basso and by Filippo Ascione with the production of the Pega Production of Giuseppe Gambacorta and with the contribution of the Calabria Film Film Commission of culture.
In the room from today, the film was enthusiastically accepted in the splendid setting of the Castle of Altofiumara represented by Supervisor Gaetano Bevacqua and by the manager of the cultural center Elisabetta Marcianò on the occasion of the conference “Area della dell’Azioni: History, myth and cinema” moderated by the journalist Rai Roberta Ammandola. After the institutional greetings of Caterina Capponi, Councilor for Culture of the Calabria Region and Giusy Caminiti, mayor of Di Villa San Giovanni, by Enzo Caruso of the Culture of the Municipality of Messina, by Michele Surace, the European Commission of Maritime and Fishing Affairs, the contributions of the Professors Daniele Castrizio and Salvatore Giacobbe, of the journalist Arcangelo Badolati and the painter Reggio Natino Chirico recalled “the innovative value. of the narration and the importance of telling places such as the strait that boasts the most myths in the world and embraces the literature of humanity ».
The presentation, previewed, at the Lumière multiplex where, with the coordination of Tonino De Pace, the public was able to dialogue with the protagonists, enjoying the shades of an emotional and sensorial journey that sinks in the beauty of Calabria: Reggio, Villa San Giovanni, Palmi, Melicuccà, Riace, Pentutattilo, Capo Vaticano, Park Scolacium and Capo Colonna. «We imagined the adventure of a young Calabrian, Arianna (Giulia Petrungaro), who – like many of her peers, unfortunately – runs away from her land in Germany.
But precisely in the land of escape, she is granted a prophetic dream, which brings her back to Calabria, in a sort of initiatory journey. And his guide is the mythical figure of Ulysses, lost as much as she, in search of its author “, introduces the producer Giuseppe Gambacorta, from which the idea of the film was born:” Five years ago, in this place I learned of the natural crazy phenomenon of abysmal fish which, once a year, with depths of 1500-2000 meters, be beaten in Cannitello and on the Sicilian coast. From Reggino, I thought: it would be nice to make a documentary. The journey thus becomes the opportunity to return to know, with renewed gaze, the wealth of Calabria, crossing the social issues of immigration and young people who go away from Calabria, today much more than yesterday.
«We have made many inspections that enchanted me for the extraordinary beauty and for their mysteries. A diary of emotions was written, “admits the director Sergio Basso. “A story from magical realism to Marquez”. Thus, Eugenio Mastrandrea enters “his” Ulysses: «An archetype that will speak forever to human beings, the myth of man who tries to find himself and return home. It is declinable in all stories and in all cultures ».
“I am happy to have shot Melicuccà, a town of Lorenzo Calogero that I love deeply”, remarks Anna Maria De Luca. Recognizes some affinities with the character of Arianna Giulia Petrungaro, who from his Calabria (it is Cosenza), like so many young people, had to go away. “But today – he says – happiness has been able to work in my land”. Therefore, a nice debut for a film in which culture, myth and nature merge, reserving many endings because everyone has his own Ithaca in his heart, his happy island to seek.
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