Seth's Journey to Otranto
125 min., digital, colour, stereo, Italy 2009
«…I no longer recognise myself. / I am neither Christian, nor Hebrew, nor Muslim. / I am not from the East nor the West, / nor from the sea, nor from the land; /I come from neither nature nor the heavens. / I am not of the land, or water, or air or fire; / I am neither from the empyrean, nor from the dust, / nor existence, nor being;/ I am not from India, or China or Bulgaria, or from Saqsin, / I am neither from the Kingdom of Iraq, nor the Country of Khurāsān. / I am neither of this world nor the other, / neither from Paradise nor from Hell, / I am neither of Adam nor of Eve, / neither from Eden nor from Rhizwan. / My place is to be without place, / my trace to be without trace; / I am no longer either body or soul… / since I belong to the breath of the Well-beloved…»
Mevlānā Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī
The creative documentary describes the masterly contents of the paved mosaic of the Otranto Cathedral and brings them alive through a journey in our times through the Eastern Mediterranean horizon to which Otranto belonged when the mosaic was laid out. Along an itinerary that touches Albania, Greece, Turkey, Syria, Israel and Palestine, the story clarifies, in great depth, how the universal sense of that radical abolition of exclusions that characterised the original Christian spirit is still alive today. The admission of the non Hebrews and, in Otranto, of the non-Christians, (Hebrews and Moslems), with their original experience of faith in the Lordship of God that acts in the present. A Christian theological summa of the southern XII century that strongly reflects the influence of Islamic and Hebrew mysticism, in one, of the Mediterranean culture of the time.
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Credits
Written and directed by: Michele Fasano
Text by Husayn Mansûr al-Hallaj, Jalâl ad-Dîn Rumi, Muhyî-d-Dîn Ibn al-‘Arabî, Abd Al Kader, Abd al-Karîm Jîlî, Abu-Ulà‘Afifi, Torah, Corano, Targum di Esther
Sound, photography, film editing: Michele Fasano
Sound post-production: Riccardo Nanni
3D Animation and special effects: Alessandro Meggio
Narrative voices: Filippo Plancher, Bülent Düzgünoglu, Khadija Madda, Jean Paul Pierozzi, John Tylor
Music: Roberto Re David, Daniele Furlati
Singing voices: Andrea De Luca, Mary Saiid
Choral singers: acCanto group; International Traditional Sufi Ceremonies Ensemble
Scientific consultation: Elvio Arancio, Giovanni Barba, Gianni Cova, Laura Pasquini
Production: Sattva Films.
Festivals
2010 – 15° Ourense International Film Festival (Spain)
2011 – XXII Rassegna Internazionale del Cinema Archeologico, essai section “Archeology and Society”, Rovereto (Italy)
2012 – Festival del Cinema Europeo, Lecce (Italy)
Project developed with the support of
