original title:
De Reditu (Il ritorno)
directed by:
cast:
screenplay:
cinematography:
editing:
set design:
costume design:
music:
producer:
production:
Misami Film, supported by Ministero della Cultura
country:
Italy
year:
2003
film run:
100'
format:
colour
release date:
16/01/2004
festivals & awards:
At the start of the 5th century AD, the roman Empire was, by that time, at the peak of the downward spiral which would lead to its dissolution.
5 years after the sack of Rome at the hands of the Goths, in 410 AD, Claudio Rutilio Namaziano, a pagan nobleman who was "prefectus Urbi" – the highest position a citizen could hold – decides to go back to his native Gaul, to Tolosa, to see for himself the ruin that the barbarians had also created in his homeland and his possessions.
Rutlio decides to leave by sea, given that the land route is impassable due to the devastation caused, as well as being impracticable and unsafe.
Rutlio Namaziano describes the journey in verse in his diary. The film is liberally based on that journal...