Press releases

MINSK, 15 October (BelTA) – Belarus will join the Week of the Italian Language in the World for its 15^th time, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Italy to Belarus Stefano Bianchi told media on 15 October, BelTA informs.

The topic of this year’s Week will be music as a means of learning the language and its melodiousness. The diplomat also took note of another important aspect which is the celebration of the 750^th birthday of Dante Alighieri, the “father” of the Italian language, in 2015. Thus, the program of the Week will consist of three components: cinematography, theater and Dante’s works.

As in the previous years, the Italian embassy jointly with the office of Switzerland’s Embassy in Belarus, will organize the screening of Italian films. Films will be screened in the cinema houses Pobeda and Tsentralny. The festival will open with Alessio Maria Federici’s comedy Stay Away From Me (Stai lontana di me) in the Pobeda Cinema House on 19 October. The film stars well-known comedian Enrico Brignano. On Wednesday (21 October) the Tsentralny Cinema House will screen Alice Rohrwacher’s The Wonders (Le Meraviglie; a joint work of Italy, Switzerland and Germany) that tells the story of one family’s life.

On 22 October cinema-goers will see Pascuale Scimeca’s drama Malavoglia at the Pobeda Cinema. The film, based on the namesake novel by Giovanni Verga, touches upon problems of the modern Italian society such as unemployment among the youth and immigration. The festival will be wrapped up with Ivano De Matteo’s drama Balancing Act (Gli Equilibristi) on 23 October. The films will be screened in Italian with Russian subtitles.

According to the Ambassador, such film festivals are greatly popular among cinema-goers. “We are confident that this year Belarusian film fans will enjoy our selection of films, in which producers share their vision on the modern Italy through different genres: comedy, drama and social satire,” said Stefano Bianchi.

The second area of cultural cooperation with Belarus is theater. According to the Ambassador, the program of cultural events will include a meeting with Italy’s leading playwright Giuseppe Manfridi who will come to Minsk together with his Theater Studio. Giuseppe Manfridi’s play Bed will be staged at the National Center of Creativity of Children and Youth. The playwright will also host a master-class to discuss musicality of the Italian language and hold meetings with students at the House of the Italian Language and Culture Dante and the Department of Philology of the Belarusian State University (BSU).

Dante Alighieri’s works will make the third part of the cultural events organized by the Italian embassy. On 22 October the BSU Department of Philology will host the 12^th international scientific conference, Slavonic Literatures in the context of the World Literature. One of its workshops will be dedicated to Dante’s literary works. On 2 November Minsk will be visited by author of the book about Dante Giuseppe Indizio, who will also hold meetings with students at the House of the Italian Language and Culture Dante and the Department of Philology of the Belarusian State University.

The Ambassador stressed that entry to all the events would be free.

Stefano Bianchi also noted that when the Week of the Italian Language in the World is over, the embassy would continue organizing various events to popularize the Italian culture.