| Director: | Vittorio Cottafavi |
|---|---|
| Production: | Rai Radiotelevisione Italiana. Sede Regionale per il Friuli Venezia Giulia |
| Running Time: | 123’ |
| Language: | Friulian, Italian |
| Country: | Italy |
| Year: | 1981 |
| Main Cast: | Siro Angeli, Anna Bellina, Renata Chiappino |
| Screenplay: | Siro Angeli, Vittorio Cottafavi |
| Cinematographer: | Nando Forni |
| Editor: | Paolo Mercadini |
| Costume Designer: | Carlo Leva |
| Music: | traditional music performed by the Pakaj Trio |
| Sound: | Luigi Borghesio, Romano Toffanello |
| Visual Effects: | Vito Rossi |
| Restoration: | Rai Teche |
| Notes: | from the eponymous novel by Paola Drigo |
Cinema
Maria Zef
Venice Classics
Synopsis
Mariute, the name of the protagonist in the Friuli dialect, is Rosute’s elder sister. The two sisters are now orphans and have been taken in by Uncle Barbe Zef, a mountain dweller whom poverty has made particularly nasty. He takes them to an isolated house where they are to live a life of sacrifice and hardship. The sisters are subjected to constant exploitation. When Mariute finds herself alone because her sister has had to stay in hospital, the harassment turns into extreme violence and incest, in a brutal, inescapable spiral.
Director’s Statement
In 1938 I attended the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia and considered suggesting Maria Zef for a film [...] it remained just an idea for years, until I took by surprise RAI’s Rete 3 who saw the project as something typically regional. Thanks to the collaboration with several enlightened figures, I was therefore able to start the initiative with extremely limited means, but just enough to carry out my early project with dignity. And it is an early work: the age at which it was done does not matter; what matters is the preservation of the mind and spirit at the moment the work was conceived.
Cinema e dialetto in Italia, edited by Anna De Martino Cincotti, Roma, Aics, 1985
Production/Distribution
PRODUCTION: RAI TECHE
Via Col di Lana 8
00195 – Rome, Italy
Tel. + 39 06 36865166
teche@rai.it
http://www.teche.rai.it
PRODUCTION WHEN THE FILM WAS MADE: RAI - RADIOTELEVISIONE ITALIANA - Sede Regionale per il Friuli Venezia Giulia
WORLD SALES: Ammirati Maria Pia - RAI TECHE
Via Col di Lana 8
00195 – Rome, Italy
Tel. + 39 06 36865166
teche@rai.it
http://www.teche.rai.it
ITALIAN DISTRIBUTION: Ammirati Maria Pia - RAI TECHE
Via Col di Lana 8
00195 – Rome, Italy
Tel. + 39 06 36865166
teche@rai.it
http://www.teche.rai.it
PRESS OFFICE: Carlo Casoli - RAI - RADIOTELEVISIONE ITALIANA
Corso Sempione, 27
20145 – Milano, Italy
Tel. + 39 02 31992197
Mob. + 39 335 1290991
carlo.casoli@rai.it
