CANNIBARDO E LA SICILIA

"When our people did not arrive, Cannibard took Sicily.
When Cannibard arrived, the Sabaudis took Sicily.
Nothing had changed from when the Arabs took Sicily.
Now that it is taken, Sicily is free because free is the spirit of the Sicilians."

The show traces the history of Garibaldi and post-unification Sicily through excerpts from Andrea Camilleri´s five historical novels ( "La bolla di componenda ," "Il filo di fumo ," "Il birraio di Preston ," "La concessione del telefono ," "Il Re di Girgenti "): the Sicilian author traces the brief parable of a dream, recounting the hopes aroused by Garibaldi´s landing in Sicily, the enthusiasm with which the people went to the polls in October 1860, tributed a "Bulgarian majority" to the island´s annexation to the Kingdom of Italy, and the disappointments that the post-unification policy aroused instead.

"History said Garibaldi did the right thing but at the time who could have known? Let us put ourselves in the shoes of the royal postal clerk, one of the many petty bourgeois in front to these red ranks who give land to the peasants, open prisons freeing "politicians" but also cutthroats, who in fact immediately return ...to to be such, in short turn the world upside down. The general is wary of anyone calling him "voscenza," he is libertarian but sows mistrust and at first fails to to scratch the wise Sicilian prudence. There is a beautiful saying of ours that goes "Munno (world) is, munno will be." As to to say: what then from change? Very little will change anyway. Sto Garibbaldo what will he want?"

A tireless researcher of old documents from from which he takes inspiration for extraordinary stories such as "The Telephone Concession," Camilleri has also always shown great interest in the psychological implications and motivations behind the choices of his characters. Garibaldi is charismatic, charming, cunning, has a resounding sense of communication and propaganda, without having televisions: even today he would be the best at it. He arrives with 1,000 men, finds allies a few peasants, whom he rightly does not trust, armed only with spiked sticks, and beats an army of 100,000 men with 130 ships, doing only one real battle, to Calatafimi. Thus was born the fame of the invincible hero, and the populace will no longer call him "Canebardo" just as Bixio will no longer be "Biscio."

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