Director
Iacopo Patierno
Year
2023
Ganre
Documentary
Duration
25 min
Country
Italy
On screen
Movie plot
"Lo Sbarco" follows a group of female students as memory explorers and researchers of peace messages. They immerse themselves in the city of Gela, Sicily, in search of the memory preserved in the fabric of the city regarding Operation Husky, the landing of the allied troops in Gela on 10 July 1943, during the Second World War, a decisive step in the fall of first Fascism and then Nazism.
Through interviews with townspeople, witnesses of the time and historical experts, the film investigates the relationship of that event with the themes of peace and war; it delves into the impact that the war had on the town and the people, both individually and collectively; it captures and records precious memories and recollections.
Visiting symbolic sites of the fighting in the Gela plain and on the seafront, the memory explorers try to imagine what it must have been like to live in that wartime context, impersonating the inhabitants of the time and expressing what they might have felt at the time of the landing.
The film also examines how historical memory can influence the future of a city and its inhabitants, and stimulate reflection on the subject of peace and war today.
What 'Lo Sbarco' proposes is a journey between historical memory and contemporary life; the streets and many places in the city's perimeter still bear the marks of the fighting in 1943. Do the people of Gela experience it as a distant, outdated, unrepeatable event? What lessons can be found from that event today? Is it possible to convey the emotion and sense of urgency regarding the need to preserve historical memory and work for peace?
"Lo Sbarco", directed by Iacopo Patierno, author among others of the web series "Italia Sicilia Gela", was realised with the Istituto Tecnico Tecnologico Emanuele Morselli as part of the project Gela Le Radici del Futuro, coordinated by Jacopo Fo and Bruno Patierno, with the support of Eni and the patronage of the city of Gela.
Age Recommendation: 15