Packed house at Montclair State University, with over 200 people, for the NJ Premiere of Sicilian Ghost Story, a mesmerizing film directed by Antonio Piazza and Fabio Grassadonia, which The New York Times called “divine” as it selected it as a Critic’s Pick last week. A simultaneously lyrical and nightmarish rendition of the brutal kidnapping and later killing of a 13-year-old boy in the mid-1990s right after the peak of the mafia wars, the film is ultimately a tribute to the resilience of those young people who are driven by a moral compass made out of feelings and imagination, which challenges the violence and cowardice of the adults surrounding them.
During the Q&A moderated by Teresa Fiore (Associate Prof. of Italian, MSU), co-director Antonio Piazza painstakingly explained the literary genesis, personal and political relevance as well as positive reception of the film to an audience transfixed by the film’s lush imagery, haunting sound and potent story. Held in the state-of-the-art Presentation Hall of the School of Communication and Media, the event was co-presented by the Inserra Chair in Italian and Italian American Studies and the Film Institute directed by Susan Skoog, with the support of the Italian Consulate in New York.
