Originally Published: 2010-01-31

Right (from left): director Giuseppe Tornatore with Margareth Madè and Francesco Scianna. Photo by Gregory Varano.

“One of the things one can learn in Bagheria is that you can laugh at anything, even the most tragic.” This is what director Giuseppe Tornatore – who’s directed eight films and won an Oscar – says about his film Baarìa, the ironic-drama blockbuster that recounts 50 years of history through three generations of a Sicilian family. Love, delusion, panelle (Sicilian chickpea fritters), red flags, feuds, nostalgia, immigration, and the Mafia. There’s a bit of everything in this film, with the backdrop of Italian politics that has characterized Italy’s history and takes its cues from the Fascist period, when shepherd Cicco Torrenuova struggles with hunger and cultivates his passion for chivalrous poetry and popular novels, and who is put in the corner by his teacher for not completing his homework because the goat ate his book.
Francesco Scianna plays son Peppino, with the heart and soul of a communist, humble, but with great dignity and pride. During the Second World War, Peppino discovers his passion for politics and after the war meets the woman of his dreams whom – despite others’ objections – he marries (short of money, they use their mothers’ wedding rings) and raises a family.
The newcomer Margareth Madè plays mamma-Mannina, the mother: yes, because in fact Peppino plays the father of Tornatore – who created this film using a patchwork of memory fragments.
“I’ve assimilated every Sicilian character flaw there is, and consistent with my flaws as Baariòto,” says the director, “for over 20 years I ruminated over making a film about that ineffable and timeless stage of my life.”
Voices, photos, dialogues, anecdotes, clips of daily Bagariota life – it’s a reality-fiction, a historic-sentimental blockbuster. With similar stories played out by over 200 actors – for the most part by the well-known Monica Bellucci and 35,000 walkers-on for a cost of over $28 Euros.
The feel of Baarìa (which is the ancient Phoenician name for Bagheria) is reminiscent in part of Nuovo Cinema Paradiso – Oscar-winner for best foreign film in 1990 – although it is enjoying less success. After opening at Mostra del Cinema di Venezia (first Italian film to inaugurate the Festival al Lido in 20 years) and going unrewarded – despite jury president Ang Lee admitting that it deserved an award – Baarìa was overlooked by the Golden Globes and was excluded from the Academy Awards film candidate quintet last week.

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