Italian Movie Night & Tribute to Mario Monicelli

On Sunday December 5, 2010 at 6.00 pm (rerun at 8.00 pm) the theatre of the Italian Cultural Institute will host the screening of the movie "THE HERETIC", directed by Pietro Maria Benfatti. Starring: Tobias Moretti, Remo Girone, Robert Stadlober, Lino Capolicchio, Melanie Berton, Gianni Musy, Luigi Maria Burruano. Drama, running time 105 min. – Italy 2005.
The story is concerned with the life of Cecco d'Ascoli, who lived between the end of the ‘200s and the beginning of the following century. A man of science, professor of Medicine at the University of Bologna, he was forced to stop teaching in 1325 after holding a lecture on the “Commento alla Sfera del Sacrobosco”. Accused of heresy by the Inquisition, he was condemned to death in 1327.
Italian with English subtitles.

And on Monday December 6, in the same venue at 7:00 PM, the Italian Cultural Institute in Cairo is organizing a special evening to commemorate the well known Italian director Mario Monicelli with the screening of the movie "DESERT ROSES”, directed by Mario Monicelli. Starring Michele Placido, Alessandro Haber, Giorgio Pasotti, Fulvio Falzarano, Moran Atias, Tatti Sanguineti. Drama, running time 102 min. – Italy 2006
Like a mere pinpoint in the infinite Libyan desert, a handful of young Italians set up a camp in a remote outpost where they have been stationed. The waving palms and undulating dunes set such a cheery lazy holiday mood, that only the occasional crackling news bulletins to rouse the troops remind them that they are in late summer 1941. The moonstruck Major spends his days and nights composing love letters to his young bride. Since they are a medical unit on the African front, the Franciscan friar who is devoted to caring for the villagers nearby forces them to help as well so the military occupation seems to turn into a humanitarian mission.
Yet, it is the intimate unsuspected betrayal of the Major’s young wife that contains all the pain and horror of their own tremendous betrayal. That is, as victims of a fate to which the young men had all so innocently and lightheartedly turned.
Italian with Italian subtitles.