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A Cinematic Anti-Monument against Mafia Violence: P. Diliberto’s La mafia uccide solo d’estate

Delfino, Massimiliano L.

This article explores how contemporary cinema can serve as artistic means to reflect upon, and ultimately counteract, the Mafia’s cultural production of violence. It analyzes Pierfrancesco Diliberto’s La mafia uccide solo d’estate (2013) as a movie that, by thematizing the Mafia in a personal and biological manner, serves as a striking example of an anti-monument. Drawing on concepts from monument theory and documentary theory, the article shows how the movie’s anti-monumental form allows the spectators’ active sensitization to and purging of Mafia culture through the sacrificial blood of its victims. From such a perspective, La mafia uccide solo d’estate proves to be an essential movie to consider in the context of both the present negotiation of Italian identity linked to its most recent violent history, and the contemporary directions of Italian auteur cinema.

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Title
Annali d'italianistica

More About This Work

Academic Units
Italian
Published Here
April 13, 2018

Notes

Keywords: Mafia, Violence, Anti-Monument, Documentary, History, Italian Cinema