VIPERA

Sicily, the 1940s. Leone, an alcoholic blacksmith who has been abandoned by his wife, who is known as the “viper,” raises his eleven-year-old daughter Rosetta. In town, the former fascist party official Guastamacchia re-invents himself as a communist and rapes Rosetta during the celebrations of the Liberation. When the girl discovers she is pregnant, Guastamacchia spreads gossip that Leone committed incest; the blacksmith dies soon afterward. After the baby is born, Rosetta is sent to a reformatory and her baby is taken away from her. Years later, she sets off in search of her child, but not before having found the “viper” as well...

DIRECTOR: Sergio Citti. STORY, SCREENPLAY: Vincenzo Cerami, Sergio Citti. CINEMATOGRAPHY: Blasco Giurato. EDITING: Ugo De Rossi. PRODUCTION DESIGN: Andrea Crisanti. COSTUMES: Alberto Verso. MUSIC: Nicola Piovani. CAST: Harvey Keitel, Giancarlo Giannini, Elide Melli, Larissa Volpentesta, Annalisa Schettino, Rosario Ainnusa, Paolo Pini, Goffredo Fofi, Maria Rosa Sapienza, Olimpia Carlisi, Nadia Carlomagno, Michele Lo Foco. PRODUCTION: Cosmo Production, RAI Radiotelevisione Italiana, Rai Cinema.