(Honorable Mention)
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Original Film Title: Death in Palermo
Director’s Name: Caterina Pasqualino
Writer’s Name: Caterina Pasqualino
Producer: Angelo Barbagallo
Country of Origin: Italy
Country of Filming : Italy
Language: Italian
Runtime: 1 hour 4 minutes 59 seconds
Film Description:
Morire a Palermo’ is a stunning hour-long documentary that reveals the farce behind the Rotoli cemetery in Palermo, Italy, and its treatment of the dead. Renowned filmmaker and anthropologist Caterina Pasqualino uncovers the tragic story of ‘the waiting dead’, where over 1,500 deceased have been waiting years to be buried, as their grief-stricken relatives are held hostage to bureaucracy, bad politics, and, in some cases, Mafiosi bribes in their fight for a final resting place for their loved ones. This situation prompts Caterina Pasqualino to make enquiries at the cemetery and in the city, where she meets some Palermitans who weave complex relationships with their deceased loved ones. She tiptoes into the stories, into their lives, and among their dead, to explore that thin border that exists between life, death and the poetic desire for rebirth.