The Garden That Doesn't Exist (2022)

The Garden That Doesn't Exist

2022

Documentary TV Movie

Synopsis

Once upon a time there was a garden, a refuge, a safe haven - 'The Garden of the Finzi Continis'. It came to life in Giorgio Bassani's 1962 semi-autobiographical novel recounting an unfulfilled love story between two young Jews in Ferrara, while fascism was raging in Italy in the late 1930's. In 1972, Vittorio De Sica's film adaptation of the book won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. Since then, the fictional space of the garden became so tangible that people from all over the world come to Ferrara to look for it. Fifty years after winning the Oscar, reality and fiction come together once more, as we walk through an imaginary garden and bring to life the book, its author, its main protagonists, history, love, friendships and betrayals.

Credits

Director

Rä di Martino

Cast

Alessandro D'Alatri as Self

Dominique Sanda as Self

Fabio Testi as Self (archive footage)

Giorgio Bassani as Self (archive footage)

Helmut Berger as Self (archive footage)

Lino Capolicchio as Self

Manuel De Sica as Self (archive footage)

Vittorio De Sica as Self (archive footage)