Today sees the release in Italy of the film “Basilicata Coast to Coast”, a road movie which is also a bittersweet comedy and a musical. It marks the directing debut of actor Rocco Papaleo.
The plot centres around a group of musicians who walk across Basilicata from the Tyrhennian to the Ionian Sea. Their leader is Nicola, a mathematics professor played by Papaleo, and their destination is the festival at Scanzano Jonico. The musicians are joined by a reluctant journalist played by Giovanna Mezzogiorno. Also in the strong cast are Alessandro Gassman, Paolo Briguglia and singer-songwriter Max Gazzè in his first film role. As they travel, each character learns, develops and begins to find his or her own path through life.
However, the real star of the film is Basilicata itself, perhaps the least known of Italy’s southern regions. Papaleo presents a Basilicata which is in danger of being forgotten, a region full of contrasts and stunning yet unconventional beauty. It is, in fact, the Basilicata of the director’s 1970s youth, a time, he remembers, when young people were full of dreams and really believed that they could change things.
“My south”, says Papaleo, “is a burden and a passion which I carry on my back. Basilicata here is almost a non-place, portrayed differently from the way you would see it in a documentary….. My Basilicata is very Beat generation, the seventies, Easy Rider; it’s coast to coast.”
The film pays several homages: there is a scene which is reminiscent of Jules et Jim and Papaleo refers to the Basilicata writer Carlo Levi and the actor Gian Maria Volontè, who played Levi in the film version of Cristo si è fermato a Eboli. The final song in “Basilicata Coast to Coast” , entitled “Mentre dormi”, is a gift for Papaleo from Max Gazzè.
