Genre: Drama

Language: Italian with English Subtitles

Director: Roberto Faenza

Cast: Luca Zingaretti, Corrado Fortuna, Francesco Foti, Alessia Goria

Released: 2005

Duration: 90 Minutes

Rating: M contains violence and offensive language

Distribution: Palace Films

Winner 2005 David Di Donatello Awards – Young David award plus 4 nominations

An extraordinary, unsettling new drama, based on the tragic true events that led to the assassination of Father Giuseppe Puglisi, a Catholic priest, on 15th September 1993.  The film depicts the troubled period when the Mafia, demonstrating its influence outside Sicily, stepped up its aggression against the state with bomb attacks in Rome, Florence and Milan.

Father Giuseppe Puglisi (Luca Zingaretti – ‘Kiss me first’) is appointed by the archbishop of Palermo to watch over the parish where he grew up – the now lawless Brancaccio neighbourhood, which lies just outside the city gates.  The crusading zeal that motivates his return is tempered by a practical, unsentimental understanding of the locals and their ways.  Despite this he’s outspoken against the local Mafia bosses and even defies them with his attempts to keep the local kids off the streets and away from crime.  Inevitably his determination results in a conflict of interests with the powerful Mafia that will not easily give in.

Pope John Paul II remembered Puglisi in these words:  “May the innocent blood of this priest bring peace to dear Sicily”