BEN GAZZARA'S LAST UNRELEASED FILM RISTABBANNA ITALIAN

BEN GAZZARA'S LAST UNRELEASED FILM RISTABBANNA ITALIAN

Rome - Ben Gazzara's last film, which is yet to be released in Italy, is "Ristabbanna" ("Right here" in the dialect of Marsala), an original work by Gianni Cardillo and Daniele De Plano taken from the multi-award-winning short film "Regalo di Natale" (Christmas Present). In the film, which is produced by Francesco Tagliabue's Fastrewind, Gazzara is an old Sicilian fisherman whose story is told with a series of flashbacks, beginning with his own funeral. The old man provides the thread that sees the return to his home town of his granddaughter (Tiziana Lodato), a beautiful girl who had left for America to pursue a career as an actress. In the short film that won a Nastro d'Argento prize and is in the running for a David award, the fisherman was keen to send a video message to his granddaughter. The film tells the of the simple and dramatic story of emigrants who are forced to return home disappointed by reality. Ben Gazzara has died without seeing his last film hit the big screen. Despite Ristabbanna's success at a number of foreign festivals (including the prestigious Shanghai festival, the most prestigious in Asia), it has not been adopted by Italian cinemas and, as is often the case, has struggled to find a distributor. . .