The feature film Il colore del dolore (The Colour of Pain), written by Benigno himself with Carlo Baldacci Carli, tells the story of Francesco, a street kid who lives by his wits. One day Francesco goes with a friend to the casting session for an important film that is to be shot in the city and so, almost by chance, he too ends up taking part in the auditions. On that occasion Francesco has to go back over the key events of his life that have made him the boy he is. The early loss of innocence caused by a difficult childhood, marked by the drama of his mother's premature death and by the abuse of an excessively authoritarian father, plunged him into the squalid world of street life. The encounters that followed dragged him towards an impetuous and unruly adolescence, which led him first into the care of social services and then to correctional institutions. Now, thanks to cinema, Francesco is faced with the chance to change his life completely. Will he manage to seize it and redeem himself from a relentless destiny that seems to have been written already?
As the synopsis makes clear, Il colore del dolore draws on the actor's own biographical experience; he was launched in 1989 by Marco Risi in Mery per sempre. The main protagonists of Il colore del dolore are a group of young Sicilians, recruited among the more than 3,000 aspiring actors who turned up for the casting sessions in the Sicilian capital. Francesco as a child and as a teenager is played by the newcomers Andrea Alfano and Andrea Lo Vecchio. Alongside the established acting skill of Benigno himself, who plays his own father, there are professionals from the Sicilian scene and beyond, such as Valentina Magazzù, Vincenzo Crivello, Ernesto Maria Ponte, Valentino Pizzuto and Dario Veca. The actor and director grew up in the Palermo of the turn of the seventies and eighties, a city torn apart by public and private tragedies which he does not hesitate to recount with clarity and frankness. Benigno retraces his troubled adolescence and his path towards adulthood, marked by providential encounters that pave the way for his personal redemption. Love, faith, hope and institutions, blessed by cinema, are the factors that guide him towards a rebirth as unexpected as it is redeeming. Il colore del dolore is produced by the cultural association “Mary per sempre”, founded by Benigno himself to give hope and a future to the less fortunate. Il colore del dolore won the Critics' Grand Prize at the Film Festival Terra di Siena in 2020. With more than 30 years of experience in the film and television industry, Benigno has already directed the short film Benigno, awarded the Grifone d'Argento at the Giffoni Film Festival, and the medium length film Scintilla, on the subject of cyberbullying. Francesco Benigno's Swiss “tour” is organised by Caves and by the Società Dante Alighieri Cantone Svitto in collaboration with the Missione Cattolica di Lachen, the Società Dante Alighieri di Lucerna and the Società Cooperativa di Winterthur, with media support from Radio Lora Italiana and italoBlogger and from several sponsors. The actor and director of the film will attend all four screenings. The audience in the hall will be able to ask questions at the end of the film. During his stay in Switzerland Francesco Benigno will be available for interviews, to be arranged with the press officer in Switzerland.
Thursday 9 November 2023, 7.00 pm
Liceo Artistico, Parkring 30, 8002 Zurich
Friday 10 November 2023, 7.00 pm
Centro Parrocchiale San Francesco, St. Gallerstr. 18, 8400 Winterthur
Saturday 11 November 2023, 6.00 pm
Wäsmeli Träff, Landschaustrasse 6, 6006 Lucerne
Sunday 12 November 2023, 5.00 pm
Kath. Pfarreizentrum, Kirchweg 1, 8853 Lachen (SZ)
Film with English subtitles. Free admission. Collection in support of the association “Mary per sempre”. Moderated by Bruno Indelicato.
