Language
Promoted by Fondazione MAST in collaboration with Cineteca di Bologna, the film program DISPLACED explores the themes and the places that are at the center of Richard Mosse’s works presented in the exhibition at MAST.
A selection of films, documentaries and short films focused on conflict zones and borders at the crossroads of social, economic and political changes.
FRIDAY 2 JULY 2021
MAST.AUDITORIUM
7.00 PM
RWANDA
by Riccardo Salvetti
with Marco Cortesi and Mara Moschini
production HORIZON SRL
ITA / 2018, 90'
April 1994 – the small Republic of Rwanda is devastated by one of the most tragic, quick, and systematic genocides of all times, with nearly a million victims in 104 days. Augustin is a young factory worker, Cécile a young school teacher. In the bloody spring that ravages Rwanda, nobody cares if you have a name, a family and a life. If you are Hutu, you must kill, if you are Tutsi, you must die. The documentary tells a story of friendship and solidarity between a man and a woman, a Hutu and a Tutsi, who make a choice of extraordinary courage.
Rwanda not only narrates a story that is still compelling today, but it does so through a new production device. The set became an experimental workshop of integration and cooperation: over 480 men and women from 24 country in Central African were asked to interpret one chapter of their own past. In addition, many Rwandan citizens played the role of themselves during the tragic events that ravaged the African country in 1994.
IMFURA
by Samuel Ishimwe
CH, RW / 2017, 36'
Gisa returns to the village of his mother, whom he never got to know since she disappeared in the genocide. The young man finds himself in the midst of a family conflict over the fate of a house his mother had built. Caught between the contradictions of a changing society, Gisa, who is almost the same age as the new Rwanda, seeks to detect some connection to the memory and trauma of a painful past, the physical and emotional traces of which remain all too present. The documentary was the first Rwandan production in the competition of Berlinale Shorts in 2018 and it was awarded with the Silver Bear.
9.45 PM
HOTEL RWANDA
by Terry George
CAN, UK, ITA, ZA / 2004, 121’
The true story of Paul Rusesabagina, the manager of a four-stars Belgian-owned hotel in Rwanda, who helps over thousands Tutsi to hide from the Hutu armed militias ravaging the country in the 1990s. At the outbreak of the civil war Paul not only rescues his own family, but also open the doors of his hotel to those who risk to be killed in one of the most brutal genocide of all times, with nearly a million victims.
SATURDAY 3 JULY 2021
MAST.AUDITORIUM
7.30 PM
CONGO
by Frank Marshall
USA / 1995, 109’
The CEO of Travicom, a telecommunication corporation, sends his son to Congo on a quest for a source of diamonds large enough and pure enough to function as powerful laser communications transmitters. When contact is lost with his son and the team, his daughter-in-law is sent after them. She is a former CIA operative and, accompanied by a mercenary, a researcher with a gorilla, and an adventurer, sets out to rescue her former fiancé. What they all discover is that often what we most want turns out to be the source of our downfall. The film is inspired by Michael Crichton’s novel.
9.30 PM
THE SIEGE OF JADOTVILLE
by Richie Smyth
IE, ZA / 2016, 108’
September 1961 – At the heart of the Cold War the newly-born Democratic Republic of Congo is facing the civil war that follows the murder of prime minister Patrice Lumumba. Fearing the outbreak of another world war, the UN send 150 soldiers to Katanga on a peacekeeping mission that is supposed to stop the rebels and restore peace.
Very few in number and lightly armed, the A Company, 35th Battalion of the Irish Army ONUC contingent must defend the small, strategic area of Jadotville, fighting against 3000 Congolese led by French mercenaries and Belgian settlers hired by foreign-owned mining companies. The film is inspired by Declan Power’s The Siege of Jadotville – The Irish Army’s Forgotten Battle and it is based on a true story.
FRIDAY 9 JULY 2021
MAST.AUDITORIUM
7.30 PM
SCREENING - DOCUMENTARY
HOTEL SPLENDID
by Mauro Bucci
ITA / 2016, 90'
Introduction by the director Mauro Bucci
Adama and Essa are two of the 76 refugees hosted inside the Hotel Splendid in Cesenatico, converted into a reception center. Their stories, and those of many other migrants, have been captured by Mauro Bucci's camera. Following his research in the field of ethnographic cinema, he decided to bring what he had learned to a practical level, making a documentary based on a survey conducted in the city where he grew up. Hotel Splendid is the intimate, multi-faceted story of the life of a community of refugees from the African coasts that is hosted at a facility for political asylum seekers in Cesenatico. The documentary shows the daily experiences of these people in a former hotel transformed into a reception center for immigrants. The story evokes the dramatic journey, often marked by violence and abuse, undertaken by migrants to reach Europe, and the application process of the asylum seekers from their arrival in the first help center to the conclusion of the evaluation phase.
9.45 PM
SCREENING - DOCUMENTARY
DISTRICT ZERO
by Pablo Iraburu, Jorge Fernández, Pablo Tosco
SY / 2015, 67’
District Zero is about lives suspended and trapped in a no-man’s land because of the Syrian war. The worst humanitarian crisis in recent times, which in over four years of war has generated nearly 4 million refugees and over 7.6 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) is told through the poignant story of Maamun Al-Wadi, a Syrian refugee who begins a new life in the Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan, repairing cell phones and helping friends print photos of the good old days. Many people in the camp visit his store, and thanks to their memory cards we discover what life was like in Syria before: happiness, routine, family life, but also war, destruction, conflict, and terror.
SATURDAY 10 JULY 2021
MAST.AUDITORIUM
7.00 PM
SCREENING - DOCUMENTARY
VOYAGE AU CONGO
by Marc Allégret
FR / 1927, 117’
Marc Allégret gira nel 1925 il suo primo film, Voyage au Congo, un documentario sull’Africa equatoriale nel quale esprime con sguardo rispettoso la propria ammirazione per i popoli incontrati, i gesti familiari, i giochi, le danze e i rituali, la bellezza dei corpi e dei paesaggi. L’iniziativa del viaggio è di André Gide, in missione per contro del Ministero delle Colonie. Per organizzare l’avventura africana Gide propone al futuro cineasta un posto di segretario con il compito di aiutarlo a pianificare l’itinerario. Nel 1927, mentre Marc Allégret è impegnato a montare il film, André Gide pubblica per Gallimard il giornale di bordo intitolato Voyage au Congo. Il film è una sorta di testimonianza visiva del diario di viaggio di Gide.
9.30 PM
SCREENING - DOCUMENTARY
MOHAMED E IL PESCATORE
by Marco Leopardi
ITA / 2012, 52’
Mohamed is the only survivor among the 47 people who tried to reach Italy on a boat wrecked in the Mediterranean Sea. After floating on a wooden plank for six days, Mohamed was rescued by Vito, the captain of a fishing boat. Despite the fleeting nature of their encounter, a strong bond is immediately created between the two. Four years have passed since that day, Mohamed finds himself in trouble again and Vito, who has not forgotten him, welcomes him into his family and helps him look for a job.
SCREENING - DOCUMENTARY
WALLAH JE TE JURE
by Marcello Merletto
NE / 2016, 63’
The documentary explores the migratory routes from West Africa to Italy through the stories and testimonies of women and men on the move and their families. Rural villages in Senegal, bus stations, traffickers' ghettos, Italian houses and squares are the backdrop to courageous journeys with often dramatic consequences. In addition to crossing the European border, there are also the difficulties of daily life in Italy. And many, having tried their luck on the road, decide to return home.
FRIDAY, JULY 16 2021
MAST.AUDITORIUM
7.30 PM
SCREENING - DOCUMENTARY
ELDORADO
by Markus Imhoof
CH, D / 2018, 92’
During the Second World War, the family of Swiss filmmaker Markus Imhoof takes in Giovanna, an 8-year-old Milanese girl within a Swiss Red Cross project for children who are victims of war. But her stay in Switzerland is limited and Giovanna is sent back to Italy, where she dies of hardship at the age of 13, shortly after her forced return. Imhoof starts from these painful childhood memories to talk about today's migration crisis, the largest exodus since World War II. Filming the Italian ships of the Mare Nostrum operation, the refugee camps, the reception facilities in southern Italy and today's Switzerland a picture is drawn of a process as absurd as inhuman, which fails to address a crisis caused by economic and social injustice turning the rich countries of the North into an Eldorado the less fortunate try to reach at all costs.
9.30 PM
SCREENING - FILM
THE OTHER SON
by Lorraine Lévy
FR / 2012, 105’
During her son’s military visit, Orith, an Israeli doctor, discovers that the boy's blood type is not compatible with her own nor with her husband's. In fact, at the time of his birth, which took place eighteen years earlier during the Gulf War, Joseph was mistakenly swapped for Yacine, given to a Palestinian family living in the occupied territories in the West Bank. Very cautiously, the two boys are informed of the mistake, but the news upsets their lives and those of their families. Everyone is forced to reconstruct their own identity and for the adults principles clash with the hostility that has always divided the two peoples. In Joseph and Yacine, on the other hand, curiosity prevails: they wonder about their lives and their future. The meetings between the two boys become more and more frequent, until they spontaneously get to discover each other's family.
SATURDAY, JULY 17 2021
MAST.AUDITORIUM
7.30 PM
SCREENING - DOCUMENTARY
LUMUMBA, LA MORT DU PROPHÈTE
by Raoul Peck
HT / 1991, 69’
Introduction by Cecilia Cenciarelli, restoration manager for Martin Scorsese's World Cinema Project
In the early 1960s a Haitian child reunites with his father, an executive who emigrated to the Congo. Shortly afterwards, Patrice Lumumba is killed in Katanga. Starting with a photograph of the Congolese leader found by his mother, 30 years later the child, now a filmmaker, delivers a documentary about Lumumba, his political assassination, his message, his legacy. Through the story of his family, the director develops a personal, effective approach to the broader historical narrative of Congo, a perfect taste of what is to happen in other African countries in the following decades.
9.00 PM
SCREENING - FILM
LUMUMBA
by Raoul Peck
BEL, D, FR, HT / 2000, 114’
At night, in the middle of the savannah, two Belgian contract officers cut up the corpse of a man, erasing his traces forever. He is the hero of Congo’s independence, Patrice Lumumba, who is brutally murdered after six months in service as democratically elected prime minister of the Republic of the Congo. A troublesome personality on the international political scene, Lumumba is succeeded by Mobutu, who imposes his dictatorship for more than thirty years. The film draws a passionate portrait of the man, revealing the private and political background that led to his defeat and death.
FRIDAY 23 JULY 2021
MAST.AUDITORIUM
7 PM
SCREENING
ROUTE IRISH
by Ken Loach
UK, FR, IT, BE, ESP / 2010, 110’
Fergus Molloy is a soldier returning to Liverpool for the funeral of his fellow soldier and friend, Frankie, who died in Baghdad on a mission. After the service, the man is approached by Haines and Walker, managers of the security company for which the two worked as contractors, trying to pass off the incident as a terrible accident. But Fergus doesn’t believe them and decides to get to the bottom of it. As he is about to leave the church, Rachel, Frankie’s widow, gives him a package with an Arabic cell phone that had been sent for him by Frankie a few weeks earlier. In order to decipher the contents, Fergus gets the help of an Iraqi musician, and discovers something terrifying: a video in which he clearly sees his colleague's team exterminating a family of innocents, despite his protests. As Fergus proceeds with the investigation, he realizes that the event is closely linked to the death of his friend. Will he be able to do him justice?
9.30 PM
SCREENING
OMAR
by Hany Abu-Assad
Palestina / 2013, 98’
Omar is a young Palestinian baker who is used to climbing over the separation wall, dodging bullets and guards, to visit the girl he is in love with, Nadia. With Nadia's brother, Tarek, and a third companion, Amjad, Omar shares a ten-year friendship and a clandestine training activity for the cause of Palestinian liberation. Taken prisoner after participating in the killing of a soldier, Omar resists torture and is asked to choose between life imprisonment or collaboration with the Israeli police.
SATURDAY 24 JULY 2021
MAST.AUDITORIUM
7.00 PM
SCREENING
AMERICAN SNIPER
by Clint Eastwood
USA / 2014, 133’
Chris Kyle, a Texan who rides bulls and doesn't miss a target, has decided to put his skills to work for the United States, which has been crippled by the attacks on diplomatic posts in Kenya and Tanzania. Enlisted in 1999 in the Navy Seal Special Forces, Kyle has the skill and determination to succeed. As his father used to tell him as a child, he was born a "shepherd of the flock", devoted to protecting the weakest against the ravenous wolves. In service since 2003, he leaves for Iraq and in six years he becomes a legend for his infallible aim—one shot, one man. Having shot down one hundred and sixty enemies, Kyle returns home, to his wife, children and veterans, whom he now protects from the ghosts of the Gulf War. A dedication that will prove fatal to him.
9.30 PM
SCREENING - DOCUMENTARY
WHY WE FIGHT
by Eugene Jarecki
USA, FR, GB, CAN, DK / 2005, 98’
Why we fight: a statement and a question. The title of the film that won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance in 2005 echoes that of the propaganda documentaries commissioned to Frank Capra in 1945 by the U.S. government to justify the country's entry into the war against the Axis powers. The director here starts with President Eisenhower's farewell address to the nation in 1961, at a time when America is at a crossroads: assume moral leadership or abdicate Republican values to espouse an imperialist vision of history. In fact, the disproportionate growth of the American "military-industrial complex" marks the beginning of an era in which political choices will be determined by the business of the war industry. The documentary shows how in each decade after World War II, the American people are led to believe that the country must go to war in order to reinvigorate the military-industrial economy to maintain U.S. political dominance in the world.
WEDNESDAY 28 JULY 2021
MAST.AUDITORIUM
7.00 PM
SCREENING - FILM
IN THE VALLEY OF ELAH
by Paul Haggis
USA, 2007 / 120’
Fondazione MAST hosts the two-times Academy Award-winner Paul Haggis, who will introduce the film
Private Mike disappears a week after returning from the war in Iraq, without even notifying his parents of his return home. His father Hank, an army veteran and ardent patriot, was proud that his son had followed in his footsteps, confident that he would make it home safely. Faced with Mike's disappearance, Hank decides to investigate and travels to Fort Rudd to discover the truth.
In the meantime, in a field near the military base, the corpse of the young man is found, charred, cut into pieces and left to be eaten by animals. In order to overcome the obstacles put in his way by the army, which is trying to cover up the story, Hank manages to involve detective Emily Sanders in the investigation. What they discover about Mike’s death and the behavior of American soldiers in Iraq makes Hank wonder if loyalty to his country is still a good thing.
FRIDAY 30 JULY 2021
MAST.AUDITORIUM
7.30 PM
SCREENING - FILM
MEDITERRANEA
by Jonas Carpignano
IT, FR, D, USA, Qatar / 2015, 107’
Filmed between the Mauritanian desert and Calabria, precisely in Rosarno, the film tells the true story of Koudous Seihon (who plays himself as Ayiva), a citizen of Burkina Faso who, crossing the desert and resisting the attacks of human smugglers, manages to leave Africa and reach Italy together with his friend Abas. In Calabria he finds work as an orange picker and from there he sends money to his sister and daughter. The two men try to integrate, despite many difficulties. Soon, in fact, a violent revolt against blacks breaks out—a fact that really happened in 2010 when Rosarno was the scene of bloody clashes between migrants and citizens. Maintaining a perfect balance between fiction and reality, the director's gaze follows the characters and takes us with simplicity into the world of two African immigrants who, after a dangerous journey, are looking for a new life in Italy.
9.30 PM
SCREENING - DOCUMENTARY
IRAQ IN FRAGMENTS
by James Longley
USA, 2006 / 94’
An opus in three parts, Iraq in Fragments offers a series of intimate, passionately-felt portraits: A fatherless 11-year-old is apprenticed to the domineering owner of a Baghdad garage; Sadr followers in two Shiite cities rally for regional elections while enforcing Islamic law at the point of a gun; a family of Kurdish farmers welcomes the US presence, which has allowed them a measure of freedom previously denied. American director James Longley spent more than two years filming in Iraq to create this stunningly photographed, poetically rendered documentary of the war-torn country as seen through the eyes of Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds. The film won with Best Director, Best Cinematography and Best Editing awards in the 2006 Sundance Film Festival documentary competition.
SATURDAY 31 JULY 2021
MAST.AUDITORIUM
7.30 PM
SCREENING - FILM
DIVINE INTERVENTION
by Elia Suleiman
Palestina, FR, D, MO, 2002 / 100’
In Nazareth an elderly Palestinian man falls ill after seeing his business destroyed by the Israeli occupation. His son takes care of him, but the young man also has problems, as he is in love with a Palestinian woman from Ramallah, who he can only meet in a deserted parking lot near the checkpoint. The complicated situation sharpens the man’s wits: he will manage to force the blockade with a ruse. The second film by Elia Suleiman, a Palestinian director who grew up in New York, is marked by a strong civil commitment in condemning the absurdity of the long-standing war between Israel and Palestine, opting for a surreal narrative style which sometimes brings a smile even in the most tragic situations.
9.30 PM
PROIEZIONE - FILM
PARADISE NOW
by Hany Abu-Assad
Palestina, 2005 / 91’
Khaled and Saïd, two young Palestinians who have been friends since childhood, are recruited as suicide bombers for an attack in Tel Aviv. After spending the last night of their lives with their families, they are subjected by the organization to a preparatory ritual during which they put on the explosive devices. However, as the boys prepare for the decisive moment, something doesn't go as planned and they find themselves alone to come to terms with their own ideals and fears. While Khaled chooses life, Saïd needs to redeem his family's honor after his father's betrayal. Their friend Suha, daughter of a Palestinian resistance hero, will help them both decide their own destiny...
FRIDAY 3 SEPTEMBER 2021
MAST.AUDITORIUM
7.00 PM
SCREENING - FILM
THE TIME THAT REMAINS
by Elia Suleiman
FR, BEL, ITA / 2009, 105’
"The Time that Remains is a semi-autobiographical film, in four episodes, about a family, my family, from 1948 until recent times. The film is inspired by my father's private diaries, starting when he joined the resistance in 1948, and letters sent by my mother to family members who were forced to leave the country. By combining these materials with my intimate memories of them and of the time we spent together, I wanted to portray the daily life of Palestinians who decided to stay and were labeled as 'Israeli Arabs,' living as foreigners in their own country. In The Time that Remains I really laid myself bare. I went as deep as I could into my private life, with all the joy and pain that this entails. I think it's a film not to understand but to feel, a film you have to get emotionally involved with."
Elia Souleiman
9.30 PM
SCREENING - FILM
TICKET TO JERUSALEM
by Rachid Masharawi
NL, Palestina / 2002, 90’
Jaber is a Palestinian projectionist whose films bring a little peace to children in refugee camps in the Ramallah area. As the Israeli military occupation gets tougher, his job becomes increasingly dangerous. His wife, a nurse, begins to have doubts about his mental health when Jaber expresses his intention to organize a screening in East Jerusalem, where Palestinians are barred from entering. Halfway between documentary and fiction, this film stands out for its different and intense look at the Middle Eastern situation in which cinema can become an instrument of appeasement.
SATURDAY 4 SEPTEMBER 2021
MAST.AUDITORIUM
7.30 PM
SCREENING - FILM
WAJIB
by Annemarie Jacir
Palestina / 2017, 96’
Abu Shadi, 65 years old, divorced, professor in Nazareth, prepares his daughter Amal’s wedding. His son Shadi, an architect who has lived in Rome for years, returns to help him hand out in person, one by one, the invitations of the wajib, as is the Palestinian tradition. Between one visit and another, the old tensions between father and son come to the surface in a constant challenge between different visions of life. The two men guide us, on board of their old Volvo, in an urban road movie between the space of a wounded city and the time of a broken family. Nazareth, the largest city in historical Palestine, petrified by the Israeli occupation in which permanent tensions inflame the population, is the third protagonist whose eternal contradictions are highlighted.
9.30 PM
SCREENING - DOCUMENTARY
LA STRADA DEI SAMOUNI
by Stefano Savona
ITA / 2018, 128'
Ever since little Amal returned to her neighborhood, all she remembers is a large tree that is no longer there. A sycamore tree that she and her siblings used to climb. She remembers bringing her father coffee in the orchard. Then came the war. Amal and her brothers lost everything. They are children of the Samouni family, farmers who live on the outskirts of the city of Gaza. A year has passed since they buried their dead. Now they have to start looking to the future again, rebuilding their homes and their neighborhood. On the thread of memories, real images and animated storytelling alternate to draw a family portrait before, after and during the tragic events that turned their lives upside down in January 2009, when, during Operation Cast Lead, twenty-nine family members were massacred.
FRIDAY 10 SEPTEMBER 2021
MAST.AUDITORIUM
7.00 PM
SCREENING - FILM
MIRAL
by Julian Schnabel
IND, ISR, FRA, ITA 2010 / 112’
Jerusalem 1948. Hindi Hussein meets in the street 55 orphaned Palestinian children who have lost their loved ones in an Israeli attack. She brings them to her home and offers them shelter. Within a few months, the orphans reach the number of 2000. Hindi's house is transformed into the Al-Tifl Al-Arabi Institute (The Children's Home), becoming a symbol of hope and education for the youngest children overwhelmed by the conflict. Thirty years later, a seven-year-old girl whose mother committed suicide will be a guest of the House. This is Miral, who, when she grows up, decides to become actively involved, risking herself and experiencing at first hand the contradictions of a complex political and social condition.
The film is based on the book Miral written by Rula Jebreal.
9.30 PM
SCREENING - FILM
THE REPORTS ON SARAH AND SALEEM
by Muayad Alayan
Palestina, 2018 / 127’
Sarah, an Israeli, runs a bar in Jerusalem, has a young daughter named Flora and a husband in the army. Saleem, Palestinian, delivers bread, has a pregnant wife and problems to make ends meet. The two meet, like each other, and begin a clandestine relationship that takes place weekly in his van. All it takes is a fight in a pub in Bethlehem to light the fuse, an investigation will explode, more political than private, in which everyone is simultaneously guilty and innocent.
SATURDAY 11 SEPTEMBER 2021
MAST.AUDITORIUM
7.30 PM
SCREENING - FILM
ARAB ISRAELI DIALOGUE
by Lionel Rogosin
USA, 1974 / 40’
"In 1974 I made Arab Israeli Dialogue, a film on a subject that had been close to my heart for a long time having had strong ties to Israel since the founding of the state in 1948. My father had started a major textile company there in 1957 at my encouragement, and I had attempted to put together a low-budget film for Israel's tenth anniversary. In the early 1970s in New York City, I witnessed a passionate conversation between two of my friends, Palestinian poet Rashid Hussein and Israeli journalist Amos Kenan, and decided to make Arab Israeli Dialogue. The film—whose shooting took two afternoons, while editing took me a couple of weeks—was composed of a spontaneous conversation between Hussein and Kenan and footage I had shot in Israel in 1953. It was a very simple film, very raw but also very honest and very different from what was being made at the time. It was criticized by extremists on both sides, but many liked it because it was different. Public television sent it back to me, as if it had been a bomb."
Lionel Rogosin
The film has been restored by CIneteca di Bologna
8.30 PM
SCREENING - FILM
IMAGINE PEACE
by Michael Rogosin
USA, 2019 / 79’
In 1973 Lionel Rogosin, the pioneering American independent filmmaker and author of On the Bowery and Come Back Africa, made the first documentary about an Israeli-Palestinian dialogue, the one between the iconoclastic journalist/pacifist/patriot Amos Kenan and the PLO poet/spokesman Rashid Hussein. It was also Rogosin's last film. His son, Michael, made a moving and inspiring film about that project and titled it Imagine Peace. He recently projected images from the original film on the wall of the headquarters of the “Palestine-Israel Journal” in East Jerusalem, the only Israeli-Palestinian newspaper, and collected comments from the editors, some of whom knew Kenan and Hussein, about the 1973 dialogue and the situation today. We see Hussein say "the victims have become executioners" and Kenan observe that "everyone should be free." Kenan's daughter, Shlomzion, recounts that "Kenan introduced the term 'occupation' into the Israeli lexicon." Lionel Rogosin was clearly inspired by American optimism, the belief that all conflicts can be resolved. His son Michael is following in his father's footsteps and trying to understand if this is still possible today.
FRIDAY 17 SEPTEMBER 2021
MAST.AUDITORIUM
8.00 PM
SCREENING - FILM
LA TRAVERSÉE DU CONGO BELGE
by Pastori
ITA, BE, 1929 / 49’
A film divided into five parts (of which one has been lost), it was shot by two Italian explorers, the husband-and-wife Pastori team. It was distributed by Belgium’s Cinégraphique University. La Traversée du Congo Belge (“The Crossing of the Belgian Congo”) represents an extraordinary document of the era and the couple’s travels across Congo, from west to east. They donated it to the Belgian Ministry of the Colonies.
The film has been restored by the Cinémathèque Royale de Belgique.
Accompanied on piano by Daniele Furlati.
SATURDAY 18 SEPTEMBER 2021
MAST.AUDITORIUM
9.00 PM
PROIEZIONE - FILM
QUANDO ERAVAMO RE
by Leon Gast
USA, 1996 / 89’
The match between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman in Kinshasa in 1974 is more than an unrepeatable sporting event. It is an important piece of 20th-century history. There is the heroism of a man who was perfect for becoming a symbol of black redemption, the artifice piloted by media and managers, the alienating profile of an Africa still very far away. A sacrosanct Oscar for best documentary. In reality, When We Were Kings is two films in one: it is a serious and sometimes disturbing description of a clash between cultures and various motives, as well as an original and picturesque film about a magnificent African adventure. Ultimately, a film that portrays Ali with his unstoppable youthful brio can’t help but have comical elements, and what is so likeable about this film, in part, is the way it evokes the buffoonish, impudent role that Ali chose to play even when he was involved in something as dangerous as a match against George Foreman.
- Kelefa Sanneh