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Italian civil cinema has lost part of its strength and its ability to impact reality. Michele Placido is convinced of this, and from the stage of the Taormina Film Festival, where he will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award, he took stock of the state of culture and art in the country, also focusing on his new television project dedicated to judge Rosario Livatino.
According to the director and actor, today Italian cinema suffers from a sort of self-censorship which pushes many young authors to favor more reassuring stories. «We lack the courage to tackle certain issues», observes Placido, recalling the era of great masters such as Francesco Rosi, Elio Petri and Damiano Damiani, protagonists of a cinema capable of narrating power, crime and the contradictions of society.
«We are missing the great directors of civil commitment»
For Placido, that tradition today appears weakened. «We miss the Francesco Rosi, the Elio Petri, the Damiano Damiani», he states, maintaining that a generation of authors capable of creating works like Hands on the city has not yet emerged. A reference that the director also connects to international figures such as Oliver Stone, who has repeatedly indicated Rosi as his teacher.
It is precisely within this tradition of civil commitment that the Rai miniseries dedicated to Livatino fits, Placido’s first television experience as a director.
The series on Livatino: «I’m not talking about a saint, but an innovative magistrate»
The production, which will be broadcast on Rai 1 with the title “The judge and his assassins”, will see Giuseppe De Domenico in the role of the Sicilian magistrate murdered by the mafia.
Placido explains that he chose a different approach than that of a simple hagiographic story. Through the analysis of judicial documents that were little known until now, the director claims to have discovered how Livatino applied very advanced investigative strategies for the time, based on the seizure of assets and the control of financial flows. A method which, according to Placido, anticipated the approach that would later be made famous by Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino.
«When you touch money, you become a cost for the mafia», underlines the director, highlighting one of the central aspects of the series.
The meeting with Pope Francis and the choice of Sicilian actors
In recounting the genesis of the project, Placido also recalls a long meeting with Pope Francis, who was particularly interested in the realization of the work during Livatino’s beatification process.
The Pontiff, explains the director, wanted a production capable of speaking to people’s consciences and of restoring the human dimension of the magistrate, deeply inspired by the Gospel and his own faith.
To strengthen the authenticity of the story, Placido also chose a cast made up exclusively of young Sicilian actors. A decision that he considers a tribute to the lesson of Neorealism and to the tradition of a cinema rooted in the places and people it depicts.