On the occasion of the International Memorial Day in January 2019, the Italian Institute of Culture in Melbourne will be showing “Gli Sci di Primo Levi” (Primo Levi’s Skis) a documentary by Paola Toscano and Bruna Bertani [Italy, 2017, 62’, in Italian with English subtitles].
Dr Mirna Cicioni will give a brief introduction about the documentary. Dr Cicioni was born in Rome and lives in Melbourne. Honorary Research Associate at Monash University and community interpreter, she has written one book on Primo Levi and several articles on post-WWII Italian Jewish writers.
Primo Levi was a novelist, poet, essayist, chemist, astronomy and mountain lover, and a partisan. He cannot be considered only a “witness of the Holocaust”, because his life and thought were full of knowledge.
The documentary tells of Primo Levi’s life through the direct witnesses of those who knew him. The Red String of the documentary is the story of Ives Francisco, he was a partisan who shared the imprisonment with Primo Levi, before he was deported. The title of the documentary is related to an anecdote of Primo Levi’s life: he left a pair of skis then used by Ives Francisco to escape from Switzerland.
For each of the topics addressed, Levi’s words and those of the interviewees alternate each other. Levi’s voice is taken from a selection of archive materials on topics such as his memories, his writing, his work, his Jewish roots, his character.
The documentary was made in collaboration with the “Centro Internazionale di Studi Primo Levi” of Turin.
Free event. RSVP essential: T 98665931; E iicmelbourne@esteri.it
Reservation no longer available