1910s. Poems with alternate rhymes narrate a journey by sea and by rail. These are the verses of Fadil Hasin Ash-Shalmani who witness a historical fact often forgotten: the deportation of numerous civilians during the first years of the Italian occupation in Libya. The short film follows the poet’s experiences and memories using only archive footage, thus subverting the original propaganda function of the images.
Italy, 2021, 11 min., Arabic with English and Bulgarian subtitles
Script: Francesco Di Gioia
Director: Francesco Di Gioia
Music: Ziad Trabelsi
Production: Yes – Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia of Rome
Director’s Biography:
Francesco Di Gioia (Gorizia, 1993) achieved a BA (Hons) at the Politecnico of Milan in Communication Design, after which he began a course at the Civica Scuola Luchino Visconti in Documentary Cinema. He then studied Video Editing at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome. In 2020 he approached found-footage cinema as director by making the short film “Fathers’ Land” (2021). He now works as archival researcher on several productions.