Giffoni Film Festival celebrates its 50th birthday together with COMICON and Feltrinelli Comics by announcing Un sogno chiamato Giffoni (A Dream Called Giffoni), a graphic novel written by Tito Faraci (editor for Feltrinelli Comics, screenwriter of Mickey Mouse, Tex, Diabolik, Dylan Dog) and drawn by Walter “Wallie” Petrone (author of Croce sul cuore and Sporchi e subito), available since August. Roberto Policastro, creative director of Comicon, also joined Faraci and Wallie in the meeting. Tito Faraci and Wallie were awarded the Riggiola d’Arte Giffoni 2020.
The story. Edo is an extraordinary guy like many others who has got two friends, equally normal and extraordinary: Marta and Jaco. He has lived many wonderful days with them, in the jury of the Giffoni Film Festival, together with other kids from all over the world. In that international and stimulating atmosphere his passion for cinema has grown to the point that he has a dream now: he wants to become a director! His film will be a new version of Romeo and Juliet, with some “insignificant” changes in the plot and an exceptional cast of actors: his friends. Someone tried to explain to him that that dream will not come true because, according to the regulation, a film like his could not be part of the official selection. But the young film-maker has already embarked on this little big adventure that, just like any respectable adventure, will be full of twists and turns.
As the director and founder of Giffoni Opportunity Claudio Gubitosi explained: “It is impossible to tell the story of the Giffoni Film Festival. How can you explain the relationship with cinema, teenagers, culture, the country and the artists?. Every chapter would be a story of its own. Nonetheless, the result has been a very peculiar story. I had the idea of a graphic novel about Giffoni 50 brought to my attention. I do not know how many books were written on the Festival, besides hundreds of dissertations. But this book is special”.
“Giffoni is a challenge that you managed to overcome - Tito Faraci then said to Gubitosi and the participants - Having a Festival this year was not something to be taken for granted. Magic happened with this book. I was asked to write a book in order to celebrate Giffoni’s fiftieth birthday. I had a long chat with Claudio Gubitosi. I tried to imagine how he was as a young boy and I tried to convey the same spirit in the main character of the story. My aim was to win a challenge. The same challenge of creating Giffoni”. Therefore, Wallie expressed his enthusiasm for the cooperation with the Lombard screenwriter: “Something that I have been wanting to do for a long time. I grew up reading Mickey Mouse and Diabolik, therefore I subconsciously grew up reading Tito Faraci. This was an important step in my career, drawing a script of his”.
