original title:
Absence
directed by:
screenplay:
cinematography:
editing:
music:
Peer Raben
production:
La Boite Visual Art
country:
Italy
year:
2009
film run:
16'
format:
16mm - colour
status:
Ready (07/06/2009)
festivals & awards:
On January 14, 1968, the earthquake in Valle Bellice razed various villages to the ground, forcing the inhabitants of the local communities to leave their homes. Over forty years later, things are still the same: the ruins of old Gibellina, of new Gibellina and of Poggioreale form a ghostly landscape that is suspended in time, in which only the sound of the wind disrupts the silence. The theater, which was destroyed and vandalized just after the earthquake, has become the symbol of this abandonment, while the rehearsals of the last concert, that never took place, echo in the background in memory of the theater’s original function.