Apolitics Now! (2013)

In Italy, on 2012, the situation is serious: Monti’s technocrat government, called to save the country from the bankruptcy of the Berlusconi government, adopts the politics of austerity, provoking protests and raising the spectre of terrorism. The 6^th of May vote for local governments becomes the first test for the post-Berlusconi era, and the results leave no doubts: the parties of the so-called Second Republic are collapsing in favour of new more-or-less improvised movements aiming to fill the power vacuum. The “Movimento 5 Stelle”, set up by Beppe Grillo, becomes the second most important party in Italy: many talk of “anti-politics”, or at least of changes which will lead to a Third Republic.

The most important municipality for local elections is Palermo, Italy’s fifth city, in the throes of financial ruin. In Palermo, there are 12 candidates competing for the position of mayor: 6 from the old, established parties, even though many of them are hiding their links to the system, and 5 from new civil movements, among which one from the comedian Beppe Grillo’s movement. But there is also the colourful “Movimento dei Forconi”, a protest group with links to Sicilian indipendentist, as well as communists, fascists, young post-Berlusconians and old Democratic Christians, and retired police generals: many of them proudly state that they are neither left nor right wing, and for that matter, not even in the centre. Among the main characters: Leoluca Orlando, a well-known past mayor of Palermo; Massimo Costa, the young, eccentric candidate of Berlusconi’s party and two political outsiders – General Antonio Pappalardo and the entrepreneur Tommaso Dragotto.

Following the candidates in their election campaigns, the rallies, conventions, concerts, electoral meetings in the markets of a Palermo on the verge of bankruptcy, we recount a crisis which is not only economic, but also a crisis of confusion in understanding and enacting politics. The election campaign is therefore a mirror of the zeitgeist, and Palermo is witnessing Politics going adrift, witnessing the grotesque spectacle of humanity in transformation – but into what?

The film is a co-production Stella Productions and France Televisions and is broadcasted in France on September 2013.

Broadcast on France Television on the 3rd of September 2013 in prime time. http://corse.france3.fr/emissions/orizonti/actu/mardi-3-septembre-20h35-apolitics-now.html
Audience Award at Salina Doc Fest (22 September 2013). http://www.salinadocfest2013.it/apolitics-now-giuseppe-schillaci/
Official Selection Bogota Film Festival.http://xxix.bogocine.com/?p=2045
Prize for Best film Italian Cinema London (Italian Docs Online 2014) in collaboration with British Film Istitute. http://www.italiancinemalondon.com/
Special Prize of the Jury Docucity Milan 2014 http://www.docucity.unimi.it

CREDITS

Written, director and produced by Giuseppe Schillaci DOP Carlo Sisalli SOUND Danilo Romancino ASSISTANT DIRECTOR Luisa Montaperto EDITING Laurence Miller ORIGINAL MUSIC Gianluca Cangemi e Luca Rinaudo per Almendra Music

VOICE OVER Marco Gambino ADDITIONAL CAMERA Nathanaël Louvet, Greta De Lazzaris, Irma Vecchio PRE-EDITING Edoardo Morabito PRODUCTION Dominique Tiberi POST-PRODUCTION Jean-Christophe Gutbub MIX SOUND Grégoire Deslandes COLOR CORRECTION Antoine Deprez GRAPHICS Quirino Calderone SUBTITLES Christine Schuler

http://stellaproductions.wordpress.com/

PRESS

http://www.cinematografo.it/cinemedia/cose_di_casa_nostra/00027028_Cose_di_casa_nostra.html

http://espresso.repubblica.it/dettaglio/apolitics-now-litalia-sul-baratro/2201767

http://tv.ilfattoquotidiano.it/2013/03/05/apolitics-now-quando-elezioni-diventano-film-grottesco/223550/

http://www.internazionale.it/opinioni/lee-marshall/2013/09/24/il-bene-comune-dellitalia/

http://www.left.it/2014/03/08/la-commedia-della-politica/15433

http://palermo.repubblica.it/cronaca/2014/03/11/news/tre_film_siciliani_sul_podio_dell_italian_cinema_london-80727740/

http://www.nazioneindiana.com/2014/03/01/election-day/

http://cinemaitaliano.info/news/22896/apolitics-now-vince-la-prima-edizione-degli.html

http://www.scenecontemporanee.it/cinema/in-rete-apolitics-now-1044

http://www.icilondon.esteri.it/IIC_Londra/webform/SchedaEvento.aspx?id=1249&citta=Londra