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CANCELLED: The Power Plant Film Series “Italian Colonial Cinema”: Sud Side Stori (South Side Story)

The Italian Fascist leader Benito Mussolini aimed to establish an Italian empire in Africa. In 1935, Mussolini provoked a political dispute with Abyssinian (modern Ethiopian) Emperor, Haile Selassie, as justification for a military invasion. While there was international outrage, there was no military action taken against Mussolini. After World War II, the Treaty of Peace with Italy (1947) ended all of Italy’s overseas possessions, and yet there remain some relations between Italy and its former colonies.

This film series looks back to filmmakers contemporary with Mussolini, as well as more recent cinematic works examining Italy’s entanglement in Africa.

The Power Plant, the Istituto Italiano di Cultura and Istituto Luce Cinecittà present:

Sud Side Stori
(South Side Story)
Directed by Roberta Torre
2000, colour, 87 minutes

Tuesday | 21 April 2020 | 7 PM

There is just the slightest trace of Shakespeare’s sublime love story, Romeo and Juliet in Roberta Torre’s Sud Side Stori about prostitution. More ethnic than ever before, Torre tells the story of Romea, a beautiful Nigerian princess who sells her body at night in Palermo. Giulietto is a street singer and is taken advantage of by everyone he knows. He suffers from nosy aunts, a fat fiancée and his idol is Little Tony dressed as the Italian version of Elvis. Giuletto falls in love with Romea. Everyone is plotting against everyone else in this film that is full of black and white magicians, false relatives, patron saints, fat odalisques, town councillors… a chaotic and noisy mix of colour and base instincts. Sud side story is a musical that has no centre. It is dark, grotesque and heavy going. Part documentary and with languages that no one ever listens to.

ITALIAN WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES | FREE EVENT

CLICK HERE FOR INFORMATION

  • Organized by: The Power Plant | Istituto Italiano di Cultura | Istituto Luce Cinecittà