Tag Archive: Paolo and Vittorio Taviani


CAESAR MUST DIE

CESERE DEVE MORIRE directed by Paolo and Vittorio Taviani (Italy, 2012)

Brutus (Salvatore Striano) and Cassius (Cosimo Rega).

If you are of the ‘lock ’em up and throw away the key’ school of criminal justice then this movie will get you seriously hot under the collar.

The cast of the film of the play (Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar)  are convicted felons held in a high security Rebibbia prison in Rome. Paolo Taviani said, when accepting the Golden Bear prize at the Berlin Film Festival, that he hoped that it would encourage people to view these men not just as hardened criminals but as human beings. It’s a controversial message as we’re not talking about petty misdemeanours here, many of the actors are lifers incarcerated for heinous Mafia-related crimes. Continue reading

FATHER AND MASTER

PADRE PADRONE  directed by Paolo and Vittorio Taviani (Italy, 1977)

My father, my masterAlso known by the English title of ‘My Father, My Master’, this is a film based on the true life experiences of Gavino Ledda, who endured a barbaric upbringing but survived to tell his story.

His tyrannical father justified his cruelty by saying that forcing his eldest son into labour as a shepherd at the age of six was the only way to ensure the family’s livelihood could be maintained.

The process of Gavino’s initiation is systematically brutal and merciless. The boy is forced to work in isolation and beaten regularly when he  resisted or showed fear.

He is treated as little more than a chattel, denied of any love or friendship. In the remote and primitive Sardinian setting the exploitation went unchecked.

A weaker child would have gone crazy but Gavino showed remarkable strength of character and the ability to endure and maintain a rebellious spirit that prevented him losing his sanity.

He grew up illiterate, speaking the Sardo dialect, with only a rudimentary knowledge of the standard Italian language.

Given that he only began his formal studies when he was 20, it is amazing that he went on to get a degree in linguistics, become a teacher and write a book of his experiences. Continue reading