29/08/2003 - The Italian director’s controversial new film, Segreti di Stato, is a no-holds barred attack on post-war Italian politics, organised crime, US spies and the Vatican

VENICE SPECIAL 2003

Paolo Benvenuti certainly rattled some cages with his latest feature, Segreti di Stato (State Secrets), about the Portella della Ginestra (Sicily) massacre of 1 May 1947 when 11 people lost their lives.
This is Benvenuti's take on one of the most unsavoury pages in recent Italian history. The director points an accusatory finger at latter-day politicians who were in cahoots with organised crime, as well as Italian and American secret services, and the Vatican.
Although the massed ranks of the world's press applauded after today's screening, that does not mean that they failed to criticise the director. Valerio Riva, a councillor with the Venice Biennale described Segreti di Stato as a comedy. “It is impossible to take a theory like the one that suggests that Pope Pius 12XII, Don Sturzo and Giulio Andreotti commissioned this massacre.”
Benvenuti refuses to take this negative criticism lying down: “An important survey published by "Il Corriere della Sera" a few days ago came to the same conclusions as us. You can reach the same conclusions by simply reading and comparing the minutes of the Parliamentary Commission into the mafia with the US secret service documents that were made public by the US government.” Officially, the responsibility for the massacre lies four-square with Sicilian bandit, Salvatore Giuliano, but the film reveals the existence of a CIA plan to dampen down communism in Sicily by scheduling the massacre for the same day as International Workers’ Day is traditionally celebrated.
Adding fuel to the fire is a protest by historian, Giuseppe Casarubbea, who accuses Benvenuti of having used material from Casarubbea’s books without quoting the author. Producer Domenico Procacci wasted no time in replying: “the historian’s name appears in the end credits.”

(Translated from Italian)