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International Competition
  • About a Farm
  • Africa United
  • Before the Flood
  • Cinéma Invisible—The Book
  • Darwin’s Nightmare
  • Final Solution
  • Foreland
  • In the Shadow of the Palms—Iraq
  • Justice
  • Moving Adult Cats
  • The People of Angkor
  • Rehearsals
  • Route 181—Fragments of a Journey in Palestine-Israel
  • The 3 Rooms of Melancholia
  • The Virgin of Palermo

  • Jurors
  • Dominique Auvray
  • Su Friedrich
  • Jia Zhangke
  • Sai Yoichi
  • Wu Yii-feng
  • The Virgin of Palermo

    Die Jungfrau von Palermo

    - GERMANY, ITALY / 2005 / Italian / B&W / 35mm (1:1.66) / 82 min

    Director, Script: Antonio Guidi
    Photography: Sudheer Palsane
    Editing: Ulrike Tortora
    Sound: Has Swinkels, Marc Meusinger
    Music: Original music of Compagnia Ditirammu
    Head of Production: Carolin Dassel
    Line Producer: Nathalie Gräfin Lambsdorff
    Production Company, Source: Hochschule für Fernsehen und Film München

    The Italian city of Palermo in northwestern Sicily is home to people of differing cultures and religions. July’s lively Santa Rosalia Festival celebrates the town’s patron saint who is said to have saved Palermo from the plague in the 17th century. Faith and tradition are rooted in the entire town, and are passed down even today. The elegant cityscape and the cheerful faces are accompanied by graceful music in this black and white film. The richness of the local culture at the heart of this vibrant festival will captivate the heart.



    [Director’s Statement]

    Memories
    These of a small child
    That listens to his parents

    Memories
    In black and white
    The 40s, 50s, 60s

    Memories
    A little village close to Rome
    The earth, the sun
    The war
    Poverty and Richness

    Memories
    Santa Rosalia in Palermo
    In the streets, the faces
    In the alleys, the stories
    Black and white

    The stories of my 80 year old parents, take shape in the streets of Palermo.
    The story of Santa Rosalia was searching for someone, who could narrate it, and found us, who loved her sons and their stories.

    No, I didn’t search for this story, but instead she has found me.
    She came from far away, I don’t know how.

    Yes, a sunny afternoon in July.
    In the vast and hot streets in the center of Palermo.
    A breeze,
    A piece of paper that flies with it,
    An image.
    A memory.


    - Antonio Guidi

    Born 1964 near Rome, Italy, Antonio Guidi studied tropical and subtropical agriculture at the University of Florence from 1983–86, at the Istituto Superiore die Fotografia, Rome from 1988–90, received professional training for director of photography at the School for Movie and Television, Region Latio, Rome from 1990–91, and has studied at the Munich Academy for Television and Film from 1993–2005. Antonio has worked as a freelance photographer for various Italian newspapers since 1987, as an actor in films and performances, as a director, photographer and cutter. Works include Perdido (1991), Il Cerchio (1994), Pier Paolo, Gigion e Gli Altri (1995), Mitosis (1996), Prapto (1997) and Wenn Worte Fehlen (2000–01 TV broadcast). He also worked as director of photography on Das Gute im Menschen (1994), Terremoto (1997), Alles Wieder Still (1998), Freibad (1999) and Battle and Poetry (2004).