Il giorno di San Sebastiano

Il giorno di San Sebastiano (Saint Sebastian Day) is an Italian film written and directed by Pasquale Scimeca.[1] The film is based on true historical events, the Caltavuturo massacre that took place on January 20, 1893, in Caltavuturo in the Province of Palermo (Sicily), during the celebration of Saint Sebastian.[2]

Il giorno di San Sebastiano
Directed byPasquale Scimeca
Produced byGherardo Pagliei & Elisabetta Riga
Written byPasquale Scimeca
StarringSilvana Prinzivalli, Franco Scaldati and Vincenzo Albanese
Music byFranco Battiato
CinematographyGiuseppe Schifani
Distributed byArbash & Gam Films
Release date
  • 1993 (1993)
Running time
77 minutes
CountryItaly
LanguageItalian

On that day some 500 peasants returning from the symbolic occupation of 250 hectares of communal land were dispersed by soldiers and policemen, killing 13 and wounding 21 peasants. The claim for land reform was one of the demands of the Fasci Siciliani (Sicilian Leagues), a popular movement of democratic and socialist inspiration in 1891–1894.[2][3] The film was released 100 years after the event. It is based on a play by Rosario Garibaldi Bosco, one of the leaders of the Fasci Siciliani. The play, a monologue depicting a peasant woman whose husband was killed in the events at Caltavuturo, was first performed on February 2, 1893, in Palermo to raise money for the victims.[4]

The film won a Globo d'oro for Best First Feature (1994) in Italy and was presented at the Venice film festival in the section Showcase of Italian cinema.[1][5]

See also

References
  1. Il giorno di San Sebastiano Archived 2012-10-21 at the Wayback Machine, British Film Institute database (access date October 30, 2010)
  2. (in Italian) L’eccidio di «San Sebastiano», La Sicilia, February 8, 2009
  3. Guglielmo, Living the revolution, p. 35
  4. (in Italian) Il drammaturgo della rivoluzione, La Repubblica (Palermo edition), February 19, 2008
  5. Biography of Pasquale Scimeca Archived 2012-03-01 at the Wayback Machine, Rai Internazionale (access date August 10, 2010)
  • Guglielmo, Jennifer (2010). Living the revolution: Italian women's resistance and radicalism in New York City, 1880-1945, University of North Carolina Press, ISBN 0-8078-3356-8


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