Emma Dante brings Palermo’s women to the big screen

by Camillo de Marco

20/03/2012 - In Palermo, two women meet at the wheel of their respective cars in an extremely narrow street, on a Sunday in summer and with the sirocco blowing strongly over the city. One of the two will have to roll back. Samira is an elderly Albanian woman who lives on that street. Rosa is from Milan but originally from Palermo; and next to her is her son-in-law, Saro Calafiore, the progenitor of a family based on opportunism and reciprocal hate.

That is the beginning of Via Castellana Bandiera, debut feature of Emma Dante (pictured), one of the most well-known theatre directors of the modern Italian scene. The film, which will be shot next summer, is inspired on the homonymous novel edited by Rizzoli in 2008, written by the same Emma Dante.

Via Castellana Bandiera is co-produced by Italy’s Vivo Film and Offside together with Switzerland’s Ventura Film and is supported by the MiBAC – Ministry for Cultural Goods and Activities (€300,000 for cultural interest of first and second works). Eurimages, the Council of Europe’s fund for co-production and distribution of independent European companies, has awarded Emma Dante’s first work with €350,000.

(Translated from Italian)