31 May La lingua del Santo
It will be the screening that will conclude the seventh edition of Detour: Sunday 31 March, at 9.30 pm, after the awards ceremony, La Lingua del Santo by Carlo Mazzacurati will be screened.
The film is inspired by a news story that actually happened on the night of October 10th 1991, when the relics of the chin of Saint Anthony of Padua were stolen from the Basilica del Santo and found 2 months later in mysterious circumstances near Rome. Mazzacurati tells of two more or less occasional thieves: Antonio (Antonio Albanese), a rugby player who simply does not want to work and Willy (Fabrizio Bentivoglio), an unemployed person who has been in conflict with himself since his wife left him. The two find themselves stealing the most precious of the relics of Saint Anthony of Padua, his tongue, and then requesting a ransom. The Vatican does not want to pay but a rather indignant Venetian industrialist, who is willing to pay the ransom, comes forward. Between decisions and afterthoughts the two antiheroes will set out towards this adventure whose conclusive implications will turn out to be unexpected.
The film was shot in the Euganean Hills, Padua and Venice, places of origin of the director.
“The landscape for me is an important issue – comments Carlo Mazzacurati in an interview – a kind of actor who expresses his thoughts”.
In the first part, Padua is shown to be almost a selfish and indifferent city to those who, like Antonio and Willy, are forced to live on the margins. Those who go to cheap bars, those that walk “invisible” in the streets, as the narrator comments. Ideal situations to bring out, beyond the smile, even the sad and cruel side of reality: because our present is something that Carlo defines as “rich and unhappy, full of ruthless and sad people”.