The Efebo d’Oro Film Festival, taking place in Palermo from November 9 to 17 2024, presents “Verso Efebo”, three evenings of cinema to come together and start looking forward to the festival even before it officially begins.
The programme kicks off on Thursday, October 24 at 8:30 pm at Cinema Gaudium with a screening of Zindeeq (2009), the latest film by the great Palestinian director Michel Khleifi, who will be the guest of honour at the Efebo d’Oro’s opening night on Saturday, November 9.
A true pioneer of modern Palestinian cinema – director of the first film made in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, marking the beginning of modern Palestinian cinema, and of the first Palestinian film to be invited to the Cannes Film Festival – Michel Khleifi (born in Nazareth in 1950) will be in Palermo during the festival to present some of his best-known films to the public and to give a highly anticipated masterclass at the CSC – Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, in conversation with director Stefano Savona.
The second event is scheduled for Tuesday, October 29 at 6 pm at Piazzetta Bagnasco, a popular meeting place for book lovers, where dedicated booksellers regularly organise well-attended presentations of new literary releases. The Efebo d’Oro – a festival traditionally committed to exploring the relationship between Cinema and Literature, whose 46th edition will begin just ten days later – will be introduced to the public through the words of its artistic director, Alessandro Rais.
The event is organised in collaboration with Associazione Piazzetta Bagnasco.
On Wednesday, October 30 at 8:30 pm, the programme returns to the cinema, once again at Cinema Gaudium, for a screening of Il Piano Segreto (2024), a passionate and courageous film by Ruben Monterosso and Federico Savonitto. The screening will be introduced by Emma Dante and Lina Prosa, followed by a conversation with the two directors, producer Pierfrancesco Li Donni (Zabriskie), and Giuditta Perriera, moderated by Alessandro Rais.
Zindeeq
by Michel Khleifi (Belgium, United Kingdom, Palestine, United Arab Emirates, 2009 – 85’)
The story of M., a Palestinian filmmaker living in Europe who returns to Ramallah to film testimonies of the forced exodus of 1948. The film not only explores the events of that turbulent period, but also places them within the context of the uncertainty and tension of present-day Palestine.
Over the course of a single day and night, M.’s solitary existence is shaken when his nephew kills a man in Nazareth, putting the entire family at risk of retaliation. To date, the film is the latest feature written and directed by Michel Khleifi. In 2009, it won the Best Film Award at the Dubai International Film Festival.
Il piano segreto
by Ruben Monterosso and Federico Savonitto (Italy, 2024 – 82’)
At the end of the last century, the heretical author and lone voice of Italian theatre Michele Perriera (Palermo, 1937 – Cefalù, 2010) foresaw the environmental and socio-economic imbalance of our present day, opening the eyes of his contemporaries. His apocalyptic imagination reverberates in our own time, filled with doubts about the future.
The Genovese Beltramo theatre company and director Emma Dante are working on staging some of his texts, while his children Giuditta and Gianfranco attempt to organise an event to commemorate him together with photographer Letizia Battaglia.
Perriera was a master who was forgotten far too soon, and this documentary serves as an act of restitution, revealing both the magic and the harshness of his cultural legacy.
The Efebo d’Oro Film Festival Palermo is produced by the Centro di Ricerca per la Narrativa e il Cinema.With the support of Regione Siciliana – Assessorato Turismo Sport e Spettacolo, Sicilia Film Commission, Comune di Palermo – Assessorato alla Cultura. Under the patronage of ERSU di Palermo. Organised by SudTitles. In collaboration with ABAPA – Accademia di Belle Arti Palermo, CSC – Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, Sicily branch, Institut Français Italia, Institut Français di Palermo, Goethe-Institut – Palermo, Forum Austriaco di Cultura Roma. With the support of Associazione ANDE Palermo, Rotary Club Palermo Sud, Confcommercio Palermo, Libreria Dudi, Kalós, Parentesi Letteraria, CoopCulture.
Screening tickets: €6