In the year that celebrates Marco Polo, the great explorer and narrator of the wonders of the East, Circuito Cinema Venezia has envisioned a metaphorical map to guide the viewers along the Silk Road. From January to June, and then from October to December, Casa del Cinema presents "With Marco Polo on the Silk Road", part of the celebrations of the 700 years since the death of the famous Venetian merchant and traveller. Month after month, the public will travel across the lands covered by the great Venetian explorer. From Italy, the outward journey stops in Israel-Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and China; whereas the return passes through Mongolia, Iran and Türkiye: a journey through the lenses of cinema.
“We couldn't help but tell the story of the Venetian merchant and traveller through the art of cinema. And there is no better place than Casa del Cinema, the operational heart of the municipal administration services which plans and organizes a cinematographic programme increasingly appreciated by the public, who choose to cultivate their cultural passions together with us" is the comment of Giorgia Pea, delegated councillor "City of Venice, culture: theatrical activities and cinema".
The metaphorical departure from Italy, on January 12, was with the movie Marco Polo" (1962) by Hugo Fregonese and Piero Pierotti; on February 2, the arrival in Israel and Palestine with "Tel Aviv on Fire" (2018) by Sameh Zoabi, a story of borders between two opposing lands; on March 8, the stop in Lebanon with "Caramel" (2007) by Nadine Labaki, to talk about women.
Along the way we will discover other places and stories: for each land, one film that represents it in some way, without a particular common thread other than the idea of travelling from one territory to another, knowing that perhaps the most precious legacy of Marco Polo and his Milione is to know, understand and love all cultures, seeing the borders between states as simple lines to cross.
The Polos were a patrician Venetian family of travellers and merchants. Marco left for the East with his father (Niccolò) and uncle (Matteo) in 1271, when he was 17 years old. It was not the first trip for the Polo family: the two (father and uncle) had long been attracted by explorations and, above all, by the world to the east, unknown, fascinating, rich, and full of opportunities. They had based themselves in Constantinople and had then penetrated as far as the Mongol empire (in present-day China), opening trade routes to the east. Marco, therefore, begins his adventures in the world at a very young age, those told in the Milione, or rather in "The Book of Marco Polo known as the Milione", a sort of novel of geographical, anthropological, mercantile adventures, where Marco Polo tells his vision of Asia, dictating the memoirs to Rustichello da Pisa, author of chivalric romances, patient and punctual transcriber of the reports. From the encounters to the lands crossed, from the human and cultural wonders to the magnificent experiences at the court of Kubilai, the Great Khan of the Mongols, whose empire included China and the territories touched by the Volga, in present-day Russia.
For more information: www.culturavenezia.it/cinema
