Danilo Correale: They will say I killed them

About

They will say I killed them is the result of an in-depth investigation into Italian cinema from the 1950s to the 1980s, that for different reasons were left on shelves in the form of screenplays, or filed away in the minds of directors, without ever becoming films because of censorship.

Moving through the birth of the Republic in 1946 and the political hegemony of the Christian Democracy party, Italian cinema was thwarted by intermittent censorship, for political, religious and moral reasons and in many cases also for economic ones. This censorship compelled authors of undeniable prestige to review their stylistic and narrative choices to avoid breaking the censorship laws that – notwithstanding the changes and amendments since 1962 – still remain active today.

Weaving together six never-realized screenplays across six genres of cinema, They will say I killed them follows a reclusive archivist Ernesto Mahieux as he navigates an atemporal bureaucratic space and encounters a cascade of topics that have been underrepresented in the history of Italian cinema. Through an immersive interplay of lights, shadows, and camera movements, the audience is led through fragments of untold stories panning from a film about Italian Colonialism, to a thriller about the history of an Italian terrorist group (BR), to a romantic play about the life of Simone Weil.

They will say I killed them was produced by the artist after winning the inaugural Italian Council (2017), a grant competition conceived by the Directorate General for Contemporary Art and Architecture and Urban Peripherals (DGAAP) of the Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities to promote Italian contemporary art around the world. As part of the award, the film will become part of the collection of MART - Museo d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto.