A man who never stops fighting even when everything is stripped from him. Marco Amenta portrays Antonio Gramsci far removed from history textbooks, more intimate and human, in "Odio gli indifferenti," the new documentary film funded by the Fondazione Sardegna Film Commission, which will premiere tonight at 9 pm at the Fabbrica del Cinema as part of the Carbonia Film Festival, running from today until Sunday under the artistic direction of Francesco Giai Via. On the centenary of the Sardinian thinker's arrest by the fascist regime, the 56-year-old director from Palermo retraces his life through hundreds of letters written during the prison sentence that would kill him in 1937, at the age of 46, just days after his formal release . The writings of the founder of the Communist Party reveal his tender relationship with his wife Julca, memories of his childhood in Ghilarza, and his love for his mother Giuseppina Marcias and his sons, Delio and Giuliano, with the latter he would never know.
Marco Amenta, why talk about Antonio Gramsci today?
I've always worked on figures who fight oppression in its various forms, and Gramsci is the Jungian archetype of the warrior who never stops. Today, when he seems less present in the collective memory, especially among young people, I believe he should be rediscovered, even in schools.
He chose to do so starting from his personal story.
It's the most natural way to immediately identify with him. Imagine being separated from your wife and children for over ten years, cut off from political life. That was precisely the regime's goal: as Michele Isgrò, the fascist prosecutor who convicted him, said, they had to make sure that brain wouldn't function for twenty years.
What struck you most when reading the letters?
"Her constant effort to resist self-pity. Even in those conditions, when her already fragile health was further weakening, she refused to let it overwhelm her. One of the most moving aspects are the letters to her children, for whom she invented fairy tales and stories."
Stylistically, how did you transform the letters into a documentary?
"Through subjective images, in black and white, in the 4:3 aspect ratio of old cinema standards. It's as if we were seeing through his eyes and walking in his shoes. The voice that accompanies us is that of Sassari actor Daniele Monachella. He is played by Sicilian Giuliano Scarpinato."
Was there anything you had to leave out?
I followed a linear narrative. It begins with his arrest, when he was still a member of the Italian Parliament, then his arrival on Ustica, flashbacks to his childhood in Ghilarza, his studies at the Faculty of Letters in Turin, the birth of the newspaper L'Ordine Nuovo, and the founding of the Communist Party. I partially sacrificed philosophical thought, hoping to fuel a desire for deeper exploration in the viewer.
How much have your Sardinian roots influenced your way of looking at the world?
Gramsci is steeped in Sardinia. He was interested in the country's affairs, its lands, its farmers, and their need for emancipation. His very stubbornness is a trait I recognize in the Sardinian people. In Ghilarza, the town where his parents met, I met his great-grandchildren who want to keep this piece of history alive.
The title “I hate the indifferent” is one of his most famous quotes.
"A very timely message: dictatorships have always exploited the indifference, the habituation, and those who only care about their own interests. Consciences still need to be awakened."
Gramsci has recently been described as a “divisive” figure. What do you think?
It shouldn't be. Some of his teachings are simple, bipartisan concepts, like the fact that study is essential for growth and rebellion. And then no one can question the brutality of the fascist regime. We need to reevaluate this figure regardless of political affiliation: a man who perhaps didn't win in his time, but who nurtured generations of people who, thanks to him, found the strength to make their own revolutions, large or small. This is a universal legacy.
After “Between the Waves ” and “Anna ”, This is the third film you've made in Sardinia. What kind of relationship have you built with the island?
Sardinia welcomed me very warmly. I love the values that have remained strong here: honor in the purest sense of the word, keeping one's word. There's a human dimension here that has perhaps been lost in the metropolises and on the mainland.