Il cinema industriale in Sicilia: progresso e trasformazione del paesaggio siciliano

The advent of industrialization after World War II represented, for Sicily, a real upheaval, not only in economic terms, but also in cultural, landscape and, above all, environmental terms. The island, which after the Second World War was based on an underdeveloped economic fabric and based mainly on the agricultural world, has faced a heated debate about the forms of reconstruction. The arrival of industry has represented, in the heart of an agricultural population, the desired turning point to feed a "dream" of change and liberation from a life of hardship, suffering and exploitation. Through the look of corporate cinema, used as a propaganda tool especially by ENI, emerges the representation of a Sicily, first suffering and then eager for redemption thanks to new industrial settlements. It is a form of representation that, despite its markedly promotional origins, has innovated the language and technique of documentarism, transforming itself in a short time, through the production of increasingly complex works. A real "auteur" cinema, involving internationally renowned authors and directors, such as De Seta, Bovay, Ivens, but also Olmi, Bertolucci and the Taviani Brothers, and great intellectuals, such as Pier Paolo Pasolini and Leonardo Sciascia, all at the service of the "dream" of rebirth of the island. It is an enthusiastic and optimistic narrative, justified by the "faith" in progress and lacking a real ecological consciousness, which would have matured only in the following decades.