Adapted from the literary text of the same name written by Paolo Rumiz, Canto per Europa is the visionary story of four modern-day Argonauts who, eager to rediscover the lost soul of Europe – oblivious of its origins and even of its name, embark on a voyage across the Mediterranean aboard a century-old sailboat, the Moya, the bearer of a great historical memory. On board are Petros, the ship-owner, Greek by origin but English by adoption, a former teacher of classical literature; Ulvi, a Turkish cook and shipwright of German mother, sweet and generous; Sam, a red-haired and owl-eyed French musician; and the Narrator, a former astronomer of Triestine origin. The four, driven by the wind that swells the sails of their boat, set off on a journey to the East, until they reach the coast of Lebanon. It is here that they board, unbeknownst to them, a young Syrian war refugee named Evropa, who is trying to escape to the West. The Argonauts welcome her, at first with distrust, then increasingly seduced by the girl's grace and strength, they end up, each in their own way, loving her. From that moment on, the real story of a war refugee and the myth of the Phoenician princess – the bearer of the girl’s same name who at the dawn of time was abducted and raped by Jupiter-Bull in that Middle Sea which becomes the scene of a journey poised between mythology and current events, coexist in her. What is presented to the travellers' eyes is a sea that bears the symptoms of a world out of control, where mass tourism, wars, dehumanised migration and climate change are the new barbarianising dark forces. Stage after stage, encounter after encounter, vision after vision, as the sail gets closer and closer to the old continent, the young woman reveals herself to be the best guardian of the very idea of Europe, terminus and melting pot of peoples, which in the indissoluble bond with the East and the Mediterranean can rediscover its primordial soul.

Europe needs a founding myth to exist in people's hearts, but the institutions of the European Union have not yet managed to give it one, recognised and shared. To fill this narrative void, I wrote the book Canto per Europa, which re-reads the legendary kidnapping of the Phoenician princess who bears that name, bringing it into the present. Because of its strongly visionary nature, this story, poised between actuality and mythology, can find effective visual representation far more as a cartoon than as a film. It could have a very strong emotional impact among the peoples of the Union, involving even the very young and children.

Director
Cosimo Miorelli
Story
Paolo Rumiz
Screenplay
Paolo Rumiz, Cosimo Miorelli
Altri credits

Enrica Capra (Responsabile sviluppo)

Producer
Production
con il sostegno di Film Commission Torino Piemonte - Piemonte Film Tv Development Fund - luglio 2024
Last update: 08 October 2024