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An adaptation of Sophocles’ masterpiece Antigone, Antonio D'Alfonso’s film script tells of a young woman who defies her uncle, the king’s decree that no-one is to bury her dead brother. For 2500 years Sophocles’ tragic story of war, betrayal, and love has sparked the imagination of artists from generation to generation. Poems, novels, plays, interpretations, and films have paid tribute to this evocative allegoric tale of a sister’s loyalty and courage. Antonio D’Alfonso’s cinematic rework draws illuminating parallels between ancient and contemporary society, offering us a postmodern retelling updated and brought to the film screen as a story of crime and redemption in Toronto. Shot in three languages (Italian, French and English), there are few films like it in Canadian filmmaking. A study of a virtuous heroine who defies implacable authority, D’Alfonso’s reimagining of the Greek classic roars with power — and dares us to choose between our personal values and those of the world in which we live. One of drama’s most compelling heroines, Antigone accepts her fate with fearless grace. In an enlightened tradition of auteur filmmaking, Antonio D’Alfonso has forged a dark and demanding film of broad, poetic appeal.
“This translation-adaptation grew out of my desire to film the play. Parts made it into my novel, Fabrizio’s Passion. Jean Cocteau and Pier Paolo Pasolini were the inspiration.”
~ Antonio D’Alfonso
“Antonio D’Alfonso offers us a minimalist film that relies mostly on the long one take as its formal agency. The story is a pretext, which basically enables the logical development of the events. Unquestionably influenced by his literary background, the director divides his film into chapters, as though this were a written work...To underscore the intensity of this tragedy the film was shot in black and white and in intimate, modern settings, organized with exception skill at the levels of sound and lighting.”
~ Élie Castiel, Séquence (2012)
Poet, novelist, essayist, translator, Antonio D’Alfonso has published more than forty titles and has made three feature films. He is the founder of Guernica Editions which he managed for thirty-three years. He is a co-founder the Association of Italian-Canadian Writers. For his writing, he has won the Trillium Award, the Bressani Award, and other prizes; and for his film Bruco, he won two awards at the New York Independent Film Awards. He holds a Ph.D. from the Italian department of University of Toronto.
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