I cento passi

Italy

Synopsis

Peppino Impastato is a quick-witted lad growing up in a Sicilian village in the late 1960s. He lives in a family with Mafia connections, one hundred steps away from the house of Tano Badalamenti, the Mafia boss who lords it over Cinisi.

Although the atmosphere in the family seems quite normal there is something disconcerting which rankles in Peppino's mind: his mother's troubled looks, the tragic death of a close relative, the lack of answers to his questions. Peppino goes through his adolescence during the time around 1968 and just like other young people in many countries he also gets ready to rebel against authority, but with a difference: whereas for- his contemporaries in big cities this means rejecting traditional middle-class values and paternal authority. in Sicily it involves defying the very status of the Mafia. Together with a group of young people that cherish the same ideals, Peppino sets up a newspaper denouncing corruption and illegal speculation, then a radio station where he runs Crazy Wave, a program that ridicules the taboos of silence and pillories the local untouchables. His family is divided - father tries to make him shut up, mother and brother back him. The impossible relationship between a father dominated by fear and a son filled with courage and imagination comes to an end when the father dies in a strange car accident. Peppino is now without any protection, and menacing threats begin to arrive. At the same time, his political commitment comes to a head: he decides to stand for local elections in a small left-wing party.

He is murdered in 1978 - two days before the polls open - blown to pieces by six kilos of TNT. The authorities first see it as an accident, as though Peppino were an incompetent, provincial terrorist killed by his own bomb, then get to a more insulting and elusive conclusion - suicide, they say.
Twenty years later, Palermo’s attorney general re-opens the case and commits Tano Badalamenti - now in jail in die United States - for trial as instigator of the murder.

Director's Biography

Marco Tullio Giordana was born in 1950 in Milan, Italy. He studied Anthropology and History of Art at Milan University. In 1979 he directed his first film TO LOVE THE DAMNED which was presented in 1980 at Cannes International Film Festival and in the same year at Locarno's International Festival where it gained the main prize, the Golden Leopard. In 1981, at Venice International Film Festival, he presented THE FALL OF THE REBEL ANGELS. The well-known leading actress Alida Valli (Luchino Visconti's SENSO, Alfred Hitchcock's THE PARADINE CASE, Carol Reed's THE THIRD MAN, Bernardo Bertolluci's 1900) was awarded for it the David di Donatello prize. In 1981, he shot a video of Benjamin Britten’s YOUNG PERSON’S GUIDE TO THE ORCHESTRA. For RAI (Italian State Television) he directed the movie NOTTI E NEBBIE (1983) based on the novel by Carlo Castellaneta. In 1988 he directed APPOINTMENT IN LIVERPOOL. After that he staged Gaetano Donizetti's opera L’ELISIR D’AMORE (1990) at Trieste's Verdi Opera House.

He then directed the episode SNOW ON FIRE in the movie ESPECIALLY ON SUNDAY (1991); the other episodes were directed by Giuseppe Bertolucci and Giuseppe Tomatore. In 1995, at the Venice International Film Festival, his movie PASOLINI, AN ITALIAN CRIME was awarded the Italian Senate's Golden Medal and the F.E.D.I.C. Prize.
Together with the directors Gianni Amelio, Alessandro D'Alatri, Mario Martone, Marco Risi he worked for UNICEF and produced, besides directing, his documentary movie WHITE SHOES on child soldiers in Angola. LA ROVINA DELLE PATRIA (1997) is a TV movie from stock footage that takes an objective look at the convulsive events in recent Italian polities. In 1997, at Turin's Carignano Theatre, he staged MORTE DI GALEAZZO CIANO, a play by Enzo Siciliano on the last days of Mussolini's son-in-law. At the 2000 Venice International Film Festival, THE 100 STEPS was awarded the Best Screenplay prize and it also won the Little Golden Lion (the Youngster's prize) and the Critics' Pasinetti award. Marco Tullio Giordana is the author of the novel “Vita segreta del signore delle machine” (1990) and the monograph entitled “Pasolini, un delitto italiano” (1994), both published by the Mondadori publishing house. He also writes the screenplays for all his movies.
 | 

Cast & Crew

Directed by: Marco Tullio Giordana

Written by: Monica Zapelli, Marco Tullio Giordana, Claudio Fava

Produced by: Fabrizio Mosca

Cinematography: Roberto Forza

Editing: Roberto Missiroli

Production Design: Franco Ceraolo

Costume Design: Elisabetta Montaldo

Cast: Luigi Lo Cascio (Peppino Impastato), Luigi Maria Burruano (Luigi Impastato), Lucia Sardo (Felicia Impastato), Paolo Briguglia (Giovanni Impastato), Tony Sperandeo (Gaetano Badalamenti)

Nominations and Awards

  • Feature Film Selection 2001