02/06/2021 - Directed by Giulia Giapponesi, and co-produced by Palomar DOC and RAI Documentari, together with Imagissime, Bella Ciao – The Story Beyond the Myth will explore this song-come-symbol of resistance

Bella Ciao – The Story Beyond the Myth by Giulia Giapponesi

It’s the most listened to and most sung Italian popular song in the world, made even more famous, of late, by the Netflix series Money Heist. “Bella Ciao” has become a song of struggle and resistance which, in recent years, has found itself used symbolically during the Arab Spring and during the #occupy Usa and #occupy Mumbai protests, as well as in the fight against globalization and the fight against climate change, and for the funerals of the Charlie Hebdo cartoonists, for the riots in the Sudan and for the street protests which have unfolded in Lebanon, Chile and Turkey.

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The story of this symbolic song will now be told in a documentary entitled Bella Ciao – Per la libertà [+see also:
trailer
interview: Giulia Giapponesi
film profile]. “It’s a story firmly entrenched within the land in which I live and in which I grew up”, explains Bologna-born director Giulia Giapponesi, who is known for her film Carracci - La rivoluzione silenziosa, which homes in on the painter-brothers who lived between the 16^th and 17^th centuries. “But the research work I’ve carried out in recent years has helped me to discover many different aspects of the song’s journey, which I didn’t know about, and which open up new scenarios”.

Bella Ciao – Per la libertà is co-produced by Palomar Group’s new division wholly dedicated to documentaries Palomar DOC, and the new division of RAI directed by Duilio Giammaria RAI Documentari, in collaboration with French firm Imagissime, which is part of Mediawan Group. The film will be broadcast on RAI 1 in December 2021. “Among the huge number of projects which find their way to us, we chose to produce Bella Ciao – Per la libertà”, explained Palomar DOC’s Creative Producer Andrea Romeo, “because we’re convinced that this song belongs to everyone and because we believe that Giulia Giapponesi’s film will help us to comprehend its global reach and importance”. The movie, which is the first documentary to have been selected for development by the Emilia Romagna Region’s call for projects in 2020, will be officially presented at the international market dedicated to documentaries Bio to B - unspooling within the Biografilm Festival (4-14 June) - with the aim of securing partners and deals with international TV networks.

(Translated from Italian)