The 2017 edition of Italian Film Festival USA – Cleveland will open today (April 10) with a screening of The Road to Reconciliation (La Via Della Conciliazione) at 7 p.m. in Strosacker Auditorium.
The plot of the film is:
The Via della Conciliazione with St. Peter’s Basilica in the background is one of Rome’s most famous images. But few realize that this street has not always been there and, in fact, it should not be there. Michelangelo, who designed the dome of St. Peter’s, and Bernini, the colonnade’s architect, had envisioned a surprise effect on pilgrims emerging onto St. Peter’s Square from the labyrinthine streets of the adjacent neighborhood.
The situation changed only in the 1930s when Benito Mussolini forged a treaty with the Holy See, leading to the birth of the Vatican City, the smallest state in the world. To commemorate the reconciliation between the Italian State and the Holy See, the Via della Conciliazione was created.
Using archival film and interviews with the last living eyewitnesses, this film relates the story of an architectural project that had enormous impact on the history, religion and lives of the people of Rome.
The festival runs through April 21, with showings at Case Western Reserve University and Cuyahoga Community College Metro Campus.
The local sponsor of the festival is the Cleveland Humanities Collaborative. CWRU Film Society is collaborating with the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures program in Italian for the 10th year.
This is the second year Case Western Reserve and the media arts and filmmaking at Cuyahoga Community College will collaborate on the festival.
For more information, contact Denise Caterinacci at dmc7@case.edu or 216.368.2374.
Check out the schedule and learn more at italianfilmfests.org/cleveland.html.