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Fathers' Land

1910s. Poems with alternate rhymes narrate a journey by sea and by rail.
These are the verses of Fadil Hasin Ash-Shalmani who witness a historical fact often forgotten: the deportation of numerous civilians during the first years of the Italian occupation in Libya.
The short film follows the poet's experiences and memories using only archive footage, thus subverting the original propaganda function of the images.

  • Francesco Di Gioia
    Director
    Director / Editor
  • Yousri Manoubi
    Key Cast
    "Voice-over"
  • Ziad Trabelsi
    Music
    Composer
  • Giulio Sereno
    Sound
    Sound editor, sound mixer
  • Francesco Lilli
    Sound
    Sound editor
  • Michele Baroni
    Sound
    Sound editor
  • Project Title (Original Language):
    Terra dei Padri
  • Project Type:
    Documentary, Experimental, Short, Student
  • Genres:
    Documentary, Found footage
  • Runtime:
    11 minutes 24 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    November 1, 2021
  • Country of Origin:
    Italy
  • Language:
    Arabic
  • Film Color:
    Black & White
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    Yes - Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia of Rome
  • Festival dei Popoli
    Florence
    Italy
    November 22, 2021
    World Premiere
    Doc at Work Future Campus
  • Ischia Film Festival
    Ischia (Naples)
    Italy
    June 26, 2022
    Honourable Mention
  • Dresdner Schmalfilmtage
    Desden
    Germany
    July 7, 2022
    International premiere
    Best found-footage short
  • DOBRA – Int'l Experimental Film Festival 2022
    Rio de Janero
    Brazil
    September 23, 2022
    South America
    Times of the archives
  • Tirana International Film Festival
    Tirana
    Albania
    September 25, 2022
    Albanian Premiere
    Documentary Short Students
  • FLIGHT - Mostra del Cinema di Genova
    Genua
    Italy
    October 30, 2022
    Best Short Film
  • Zebra Poetry Film Festival
    Berlin
    Germany
    November 4, 2022
    Goethe Film Award – Sustainable Living
  • Mercy To Universe International Short Film Competition
    Istambul
    Turkey
    November 26, 2022
    Turkish Premiere
    Honorable Mention
  • Napoli - CortiSonanti International Short Film Festival
    Naples
    Italy
    December 15, 2022
    Best Short Documentary
  • River Film Festival
    Padua
    Italy
    June 8, 2022
    Audience Award - Students
  • Free Aquila Festival
    Rome
    Italy
    December 2, 2021
    Jury Special Mention
  • La Poesia che si vede
    Ancona
    Italy
    October 24, 2022
    Best Italian Video Poetry
  • Videoconcorso Francesco Pasinetti
    Venice
    Italy
    June 7, 2022
    Best Professional Documentary
  • Premio Internazionale di Archeologia Amedeo Maiuri
    Pompeii
    Italy
    Award ArcheoDoc
  • Prato Film Festival
    Prato
    Italy
    June 30, 2022
    Sui Generis
  • RAM film festival - Rovereto. Archeologia. Memorie.
    Rovereto
    Italy
    September 29, 2022
  • ShorTS - International Film Festival
    Trieste
    Italy
    July 8, 2022
    Maremetraggio - International Competition
  • MENA Film Festival
    Vancouver
    Canada
    November 28, 2022
    Canadian Premiere
    Official Selection
  • BCT - Festival Nazionale del Cinema e della Televisione
    Benevento
    Italy
    July 12, 2022
    Official Selection
  • PerSo - Perugia Social Film Festival
    Perugia
    Italy
    October 2, 2022
    Official Selection
  • Short documentary film festival Bistre Reke (Clear Rivers)
    Belgrade
    Serbia
    July 15, 2022
    Serbian Premiere
    Official Selection
  • Faito Doc Festival
    Monte Faito (Naples)
    Italy
    July 22, 2022
    Official Selection
  • IFEF - International Festival of Ethnological Film
    Belgrade
    Serbia
    October 4, 2022
    Official Selection
  • Festival della Comunicazione e del Cinema Archeologico
    Licodia Eubea
    Italy
    October 13, 2022
  • MalatestaShort Film Festival
    Cesena
    Italy
    October 30, 2022
    International Competition ARCHIVE FILM
Distribution Information
  • Prem1ere Film
    Distributor
    Country: Italy
    Rights: Internet, Theatrical
Director Biography - Francesco Di Gioia

Francesco Di Gioia (Gorizia, 1993) achieved a BA (Hons) at the Politecnico of Milan in Communication Design, after which he began a course at the Civica Scuola Luchino Visconti in Documentary Cinema.
He then studied Video Editing at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome. In 2020 he approached found-footage cinema as director by making the short film “Fathers’ Land” (2021).
He currently works as an archive researcher for several productions.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

Interested in the history of Italian colonialism, I had the idea to make "Fathers' Land" after reading Fadil Hasin Ash-Shalmani's poems.
This Libyan poet, deported to Favignana Island between 1913 and 1920, gave us a rare testimony of an often forgotten historical fact described by his verses.
Although based on this testimony, my archival research for making the short film was not philological. The main intention was to transmit the direct experience of the man, which has been made possible by choosing among a large spectrum of images. Therefore, the footage from different periods and places are mixed, including many films from the Fascist period that leave their propaganda message to depict a pre-colonial Libya.
The sound is entirely reconstructed and mixed with the verses in Libyan Arabic. In this way, we tried to accompany this subjective narration by expressing the poet's most visceral emotions.
If poetry is often untranslatable, this is an attempt to translate it into sounds and images.