17° TORINO FILM FESTIVAL
Italian Spottings 1999
ROSSO/ASKATASUNA (A PROPOSITO DI UN PRIMO MAGGIO IN GUERRA)
Country: Italy
Year: 1999
Duration: 60'
Turin - June, 1999. Actor Beppe Rosso puts on a play at the Askatasuna Occupied Social Center. It was meant to revitalize the equipment that is indispensable for the running of the center's cultural activities. This took place a month after the center's May 1, 1999, "confiscation" by the forces of law and order, which resulted in the center's total destruction. The play became a pretext for telling the story of those days of war on the urban front, the story of a city divided by the conflict in ex-Yugoslavia. It was a day of absurd intolerance, a day that fell victim to a situation of total dis-information. This day is re-lived through the testimony of the protagonists of that May 1. Once Beppe Rosso takes off his actor's costume, he comes down from the stage. He asks questions, listens, moves around, and walks. He walks like the characters of his play, entitled The Walkers. Like those characters, he inquires about racial intolerance. He asks why there was so much violence against the Askatasuna Social Center. There were so many questions and so many answers in order to search out the dynamics and the motives that generated that May 1 war. In addition, the aim was to mark out a starting point based on the real events that happened and the objective responsibility for those events. This starting point is intended to allow the dialogue and encounter to resume between those two parts of society that have been separated from each other in such a dramatic and violent way.
Biography
film director
Armando Ceste
Armando Ceste (Turin, 1942), after several experiences in underground cinema (his first short film, La lezione, was screened at the Festival del Cinema Indipendente Italiano in 1969 in Turin), in the beginning of the 70's he is one of the founders of Collettivo Cinema Militante in Turin. In the last years he has made several works, some of them in collaboration with the Archivio Audiovisivo del movimento Operaio e Demovratico in Rome. He has been artistic director at Valsusa FilmFest, film festival on the themes of historic memory and environment defense.
FILMOGRAFIA
La lezione (1969), I migliori anni della nostra vita (1987), Donato (1987), Nosferatu, ogni notte di fronte a me (1988), Das Rastel einer Strasse (1988), Morire d'amore (1988), Recita (1990), L'ultimo nastro (1991), Lontano dal golfo (1991), Jean-Marie Straub, la resistenza del cinema (1991), Finale di partita (1992), Marzo 1973 - I giorni della Fiat (1993), Due o tre cose (1994), Aria di golpe (1994), Milano 25 aprile (1994), Mai tardi (1996), Anna Karina. Il volto della Nouvelle Vague (1996), Le parole sono importanti (1996), Jean-Marie Straub. Lezione di cinema (1998), Viaggio alla fine del mondo (dove le storie vanno a finire) (1998), Rosso/Askatasuna (a proposito di un primo maggio di guerra) (1999), Romeo & Giulietta. Il gioco del film (2000), Abdellah e i suoi fratelli (2000), Erri De Luca. Dopo Genova (filastrocche sgangherate) (2001), Libera terra (2002), Fiatamlet (2003) Variazioni (doc, 2004).
Cast
& Credits
Director: Armando Ceste.
Soggetto, sceneggiatura: Armando Ceste, Beppe Rosso.
Director of photography: Claudio Coloberti.
Editor: Giorgio Mari.
Music: Sunpower.
Sound: Arno Wagner.
Cast: Beppe Rosso.
Production company: AC/Cinema&Video, via Accademia Albertina 10, 10123 Torino, tel. e fax +30-011-8170250, e-mail arceste@tin.it.
Soggetto, sceneggiatura: Armando Ceste, Beppe Rosso.
Director of photography: Claudio Coloberti.
Editor: Giorgio Mari.
Music: Sunpower.
Sound: Arno Wagner.
Cast: Beppe Rosso.
Production company: AC/Cinema&Video, via Accademia Albertina 10, 10123 Torino, tel. e fax +30-011-8170250, e-mail arceste@tin.it.