''A Street in Palermo'' ( it, Via Castellana Bandiera) is a 2013 Italian drama film written and directed by

Emma Dante Emma Dante (born 6 April 1967) is an Italian playwright, theatre director and stage actress. She wrote, directed and starred in the 2013 film ''A Street in Palermo''. She later directed numerous operas, including Richard Strauss' ''Feuersnot'' a ...

. It was screened in the main competition section at the 70th Venice International Film Festival. Elena Cotta won the Volpi Cup for Best Actress.

Plot

During hot and sunny Sunday afternoon in

Palermo Palermo ( , ; scn, Palermu , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan ...

, two women, Rosa and Clara, who have come to celebrate a friend's wedding, get lost in the streets of the city and end up in tiny alley: via Castellana Bandiera (a road that actually exists in the area of Mount Pellegrino). At the same moment another car, driven by Samira and with the Calafiore family crammed inside, arrives in the opposite direction and enters the same street. Neither Rosa nor Samira, an old and stubborn woman driving her car, intend to give way to each other. Locked in their cars, the two women face off in a silent duel that takes place in the intimate violence of the looks. An all-female challenge punctuated by the refusal to drink, eat and sleep, more stubborn than the Palermo sun and more stubborn than the ferocity of the men around them. Samira's family decides to make a bet with all the families they know to see which of the two women is the most stubborn, betting everything on Samira. Despite Clara's attempts to make Rosa desist and Samira's grandson to get her grandmother home, the duel doesn't stop as none of the two cars backs away. Rosa's stubbornness is motivated by a sense of frustration towards her mother and a city, Palermo, in which she has never felt at home, while Samira, almost turned to stone by years of mistreatment and by the death of her daughter, vents his pain in this duel. The next morning, awakened from sleep, Rosa finds Samira still in the car with her hands on the wheel. It would seem that the old woman was evidently more stubborn than her, but paying a heavy price: Samira has, in fact, died at the wheel. As the Calafiore family gathers around the deceased woman, Rosa and Clara retreat, leaving the alley.

Cast

as Rosa *

Alba Rohrwacher Alba Caterina Rohrwacher (, ; born 27 February 1979) is an Italian actress. Early life Alba Rohrwacher was born in Florence, the daughter of a German father and an Italian mother. From the age of 17 to 21 she studied medicine, intending to be a ...

as Clara * Elena Cotta as Samira * Renato Malfatti as Saro Calafiore * Dario Casarolo as Nicolò * Carmine Maringola as Filippo Mangiapane * Sandro Maria Campagna as Santo

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Street In Palermo 2013 films 2013 drama films Albanian-language films Italian drama films 2010s Italian-language films Films set in Palermo