The Film Festival will begin on Thursday 19 at 7.30 with Perlasca: The Courage of a Just Man, by Alberto Negrin. Based on the true story of an Italian businessman who masqueraded as a Spanish diplomat at the end of WWII, Perlasca tells the tale of one man’s remarkable ingenuity and audacity in saving fifty-two hundred Hungarian Jews from deportation to Auschwitz.

On Friday, April 20, at 7:30 PM Good Morning Night, by Marco Bellocchio will be screened: the film follows the seizure and murder of Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro by the Red Brigades in 1978.

On Saturday 21, as the main event, the festival will feature the U.S. premiere of Emanuele Crialese’s Nuovomondo (The Golden Door) in two screenings at 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m., with an introduction by Anthony Riccio, author of The Italian-American Experience in New Haven. Set in the early 1900’s, during the great wave of Italian immigration to the U.S., the film tells the story of a poor immigrant farmer, Salvatore, who uproots his family from Sicily in the hopes of harvesting the American dream. Nuovomondo has won several prizes, including a Silver Lion at the 2006 Venice Film Festival, and was the Italian candidate to the 2007 Academy Awards; it is being presented courtesy of Miramax.

All films, in Italian with English subtitles, are open to the public and free of charge.

From 20-22 April 2007, scholars and students from the U.S. and Italy will meet to discuss the new trends of Italian cinematography, and to celebrate the legacy of one of Italy’s most famous and esteemed maestros, Roberto Rossellini. Among the participants are well-known scholars such as Millicent Marcus, Dudley Andrew, Francesco Casetti, Ruth Ben-Ghiat, and Giuseppe Mazzotta. Ingrid Rossellini and her brother Renzo will participate to honor the memory of their father. All events will take place at the Whitney Auditorium, 53 Wall Street, New Haven.

We hope to see you there!