31/08/2003

A complicated film that was a long time in the making and which would never have seent the light of day if it weren’t for the commitment of a lot of very dedicated individuals.
Ciprì & Maresco cut an extraordinary and frankly complex story down to it essential elements and this film heralds their return to filmmaking, five years after the controversial Totò che visse due volte.
Il ritorno di Cagliostro (The Return of Cagliostro), selected for the Controcorrente competition, is both comical and apocalyptic, and it stars everybody’s favourite nightmare a.k.a. Robert (“Freddy”) Englund, Luigi Maria Burruano and Franco Scaldati.

Il ritorno di Cagliostro is the story of an adventurous and ambitious production slate, "La Marca Brothers" and how it manages to survive on a wing and a prayer.
“We are the La Marca brothers,” japed the directorial duo today. “The Sicily we portray in this film dates back to 1947-1950, when independence was still something to hope for, even though the mafia was in cahoots with the Church and Lucky Luciano was busy reuniting America’s Cosa Nostra with its more notorious Sicilian cousin. It was a time when Pirandello was writing tomes about Sicilian aristocrats who could not dilapidate their family fortunes fast enough, to create a sort of Hollywood in Palermo.”

(Translated from Italian)