Sicilian Culture: The News & Views: Paisan: World War II In Italy Re-visited in Upcoming Film with All-Star Cast

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Paisan: World War II In Italy Re-visited in Upcoming Film with All-Star Cast
For Immediate Release - Jan 1, 2001 - NYC / Rome: 'paisan', a gritty and raw WWII drama in the spirit of Rossellini's 'Open City' is under rapid development at Astoria Films in NYC and Rome, being financed in part by the NIAF (National Italian-American Foundation) in Washington.
This epic motion picture will encompass the devastation of Southern Italy at the hands of Mussolini, Hitler and soldiers of the Royal Italian Army who are torn between their dictator, and the country that so many of their friends & family now call their home. It will consider the irony of some of the over 1,200,000 Italian-American soldiers who fought bravely for their country, while almost 2,000 of their relatives were rounded up and sent to an internment camp at the beginning of U.S. involvement, by order of the President.
The story begins in 1942 when US Navy Intelligence concerned with pro-fascist elements migrating from Italy to the US (after a suspicious fire aboard the USS Normandy in the NY Harbor), decides to make a deal with the devil Lucky Luciano, because of his stranglehold on the waterfront. His willingness "to be a good American", quickly ends any further sabotage and leads intelligence officers to Don Calo Vazzini. Though in the end, it dispels the myth that through the Navy's 'Project Underworld', this decades-old Sicilian organization headed by Vizzini may have in fact provided assistance to the Allies, it was not for such honorable reasons or ties to Luciano.
But all of this only sets the stage for a US 82nd Airborne unit led by an italian-american officer, which occupies and defends a small town near Naples while waiting to link up with the rest of Patton's 7th Army. After befriending its people, encountering some bizzare and even comical situations, and finally discovering a close family tie, they are all ultimately betrayed by one among them out of simple jealousy.
To be filmed in NYC & Italy entirely in b & w, intercutting archival footage, 'paisan' will describe only a few aspects of WWII that was unique to the Italian campaign, a country and people that Hitler was ready to "burn to the ground." Unlike 'Saving Private Ryan' 'Enemy At The Gates' & "The Thin Red Line', all outstanding in their own right, the war in Italy led to 600,000 RIA soldiers imprisoned in labor camps mostly for treason (after Italy changes sides in 1943), the brave partisan efforts, and the murder of perhaps tens of thousands of civilians (for their pro-American loyalty and benevolence towards Jews), including women, children, priests & nuns at the hands of Himmler's SS. "Ten Italians for every German soldier killed" as Hitler ordered in 1943. But as Winston Churchill realizes, Italy must fall first since it is the gateway to Europe, and so the stage could be set for D-Day the following June. Pre-production is set to begin Fall 2001.
For further information contact: James LaVita 212-330-0607 PaisanMovie@aol.com
Registered with The Writer's Guild Of America
Astoria Films
545 Eighth Avenue Suite 401 NYC 10018 ? 212-330-0607 Fax 718-358-5415 ? AstoriaFilmsNYC@aol.com

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