Baarìa (film)

Baarìa
Baarìa
Directed by	Giuseppe Tornatore
Written by	Giuseppe Tornatore
Produced by	Tarak Ben Ammar
Starring	Francesco Scianna; Margareth Madè
Cinematography	Enrico Lucidi
Edited by	Massimo Quaglia
Music by	Ennio Morricone
Production; company	Medusa Film
Distributed by	Medusa Distribuzione
Release dates	25 September 2009 (Italy); 23 July 2010 (UK);
Running time	160 minutes
Country	Italy
Languages	Sicilian; Italian
Budget	$30 million

Baarìa is a 2009 Italian film directed by Giuseppe Tornatore. It was the opening film of the 66th Venice International Film Festival in September 2009.^[2] Although selected as the Italian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 82nd Academy Awards, it was not nominated.

Plot

The film recounts life in the Sicilian town of Bagheria (known as Baarìa in Sicilian), from the 1930s to the 1980s, through the eyes of lovers Peppino (Francesco Scianna) and Mannina (Margareth Madè). A Sicilian family depicted across three generations: from Cicco to his son Peppino to his grandson Pietro. Touching lightly on the private lives of these characters and their families, the film evokes the loves, dreams and disappointments of an entire community in the province of Palermo over five decades: during the Fascist period, Cicco is a shepherd who finds time to pursue his passion: books, epic poems, the great popular romance novels. In the days when people go hungry and during World War II, his son Peppino witnesses injustice by mafiosi and landowners. He becomes a communist. After the war, he encounters the woman of his life. Her family opposes the relationship because of his political ideas, but the two insist on marrying. They have children and raise their family.

Subplots include one about a boy running an errand, a living fly locked inside a top, three rocks people try to hit in one throw, a man mutilating himself to avoid having to fight in the war, looting while the U.S. invades Sicily, making clothing from an American parachute, and Peppino's daughter calling her father a fascist for not allowing her to wear a mini-skirt.

Running through the film is the main subplot, related to the history of the Italian left, especially the Communist Party, of which Peppino is a lifelong member. It charts his fight against injustice and eventual disillusionment in the face of corruption and compromise by his fellow politicians.

Production

The film was first announced during the 2007 Taormina Film Festival.

The film was shot in both Bagheria, where Tornatore was born, and in an old neighborhood of Tunis, Tunisia; the latter location used because it could better depict what Bagheria looked like in the early 20th century.

Language

The film exists in two versions, the original in the local Baariotu dialect of Sicilian and the second dubbed in Italian.^[3]

Main cast

Francesco Scianna as Peppino Torrenuova
Margareth Madè as Mannina
Raoul Bova as Romano, a reporter
Ángela Molina as grown-up Sarina
Salvatore Ficarra: Nino Torrenuova
Valentino Picone: Luigi Scalìa
Enrico Lo Verso as Minicu
Luigi Lo Cascio as youngster with Down syndrome
Laura Chiatti as a student girl
Giuseppe Fiorello as moneychanger
Nicole Grimaudo as Sarina
Leo Gullotta as Liborio
Aldo Baglio as the businessman
Gisella Marengo as Matilde
Luigi Maria Burruano as the pharmacist
Nino Frassica as Giacomo Bartolotta
Giorgio Faletti as Corteccia
Vincenzo Salemme as the chief comedian
Tony Sperandeo as the farmer
Monica Bellucci as the mason's girl
Michele Placido as an exponent of the PCI
Gabriele Lavia as the teacher
Paolo Briguglia as the catechist
Lina Sastri as Tana
Gaetano Aronica as Ciccio Torrenuova
Corrado Fortuna as Renato Guttuso

Reception

Critical response

Baarìa has an approval rating of 55% on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 11 reviews, and an average rating of 5.4/10.^[4]

Nominations and awards

Nominated to the 2010 Golden Globe in the Best Foreign Language Film category.

It was also the Italian entry for the 2010 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film^[5] but did not get the nomination.

Controversy

In Italy, the Lega Antivivisezione (an anti-animal cruelty group) has condemned^[6] the actual on-screen killing of a cow visible in the Italian trailer. The animal was killed with an iron punch driven in the skull without any pain-relief technique, and then seen bleeding to death while some actors collect and drink its blood.

Such a scene could not have been shot in Italy, because of laws against the unethical treatment of animals in media production. That part of the movie was filmed in Tunisia, where there are no such restrictions.

Thereafter the ENPA (National Association of Animal Protection) demanded the immediate withdrawal of all copies distributed in theatres "to avoid the exposition of minors to such disgusting and fearful images", as the film is rated for an unrestricted audience. Again according to the ENPA, although the scene was filmed in Tunisia thus bypassing the Italian law, after application to the Minister of Justice, the prosecution can still take place in Italy.^[7] In October 2009, the ENPA started an international boycott campaign against the film and an online petition asking to revoke the designation of the movie as Italian entry to the Oscars.^[8]

Responding to these critics, director Giuseppe Tornatore clarified that the location in Tunisia was not intended to bypass Italian regulations, and that the animal was not specifically killed for the film. The scene was filmed in a local slaughterhouse and the killing was one of the many that take place there every day.^[9]