The Letters to Pasolini interpreted by Montanari open the Correspondence Festival in Monte del Lago



In the year of the centenary of his birth, the letters to Pasolini, staged by Francesco Montanari (and Dog on the moon), could not fail to open the eleventh edition of the Correspondence Festival.


On 6 September, at 9.15 pm, in Piazzetta Sant’Andrea, in Monte del Lago di Magione, Montanari, a Roman of the 80’s generation, born when Pasolini had already disappeared, traces through the letters received from Pasolini the change of a country, the annihilation of a society and the eternal hopes of young people. A project on Pier Paolo Pasolini by Matteo Cerami and Davide Sacco, on the occasion of the centenary of the birth of the great director and poet.


As Sacco explained in an interview: “As we approached Pasolini in the ‘Le Vie Nuove’ column we were deeply fascinated by the profound division between those who wrote to him: boys in love, fascists who hated him, professors, housewives. What struck us most, however, was the extraordinary tenderness and humanity with which PPP responded to everyone. And so we identified the fil rouge of this show: attention and responsibility in particular in the responses to young people, who in him were looking for a compass to navigate, in an Italy that was about to change or had already changed “.


The festival program


The festival continues on Wednesday 7 September, at 7 pm, with History of the Italian language through letters, letters from women from the Middle Ages between reality and fantasy, a monologue by and with Massimo Arcangeli, linguist, literary critic and writer. Also Wednesday: waiting for one of the most interesting events of this edition. At 9.15 pm on the program Piergiorgio Odifreddi with his book On the way in search of the Truth, letters and talks with Benedict XVI (Rizzoli). This book represents an exceptional example of dialogue between Faith and Science. In the span of nine years, from 2013 to today, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI and Piergiorgio Odifreddi, an atheist mathematician, have met several times in person and have had an intense and profound correspondence by correspondence. In these pages everything is documented: Odifreddi tells their talks in detail and the letters are reported in full. It is a formidable spiritual journey, in which the theologian and the man of science confront each other on countless themes: ethics, anthropology, spirituality, the “ultimate” questions on life and death, love and pain. As we read in the preface by Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi: “It is, however, another element that makes this long dialogue unique: even from diametrically opposed positions, Odifreddi and Benedict XVI recognize the common purpose of the tension to understand, of the search for Truth. An end that stimulates their conversations making them intimate, arouses autobiographical memories in both of them and gives rise to an undoubted complicity “.


The 2022 edition, scheduled from Tuesday 6 to Sunday 11 September, will see over 25 events, all with free admission, including readings, seminars, round tables, book presentations, theatrical performances, lectures and insights. There will be literary walks, workshops and appointments for the little ones. Six days between history and current events to celebrate the beauty of the written word, reflect on the great events that have changed our time, analyze the present. All in the splendid setting of the lakeside village of Monte del Lago di Magione.


Born precisely in the context of the Vittoria Aganoor Pompilj National Literary Prize, reserved for letters and correspondence, the event has built up a unique role over the years by combining in an unprecedented way the debate on current events, historical-sociological analysis and literature through letters and correspondence, becoming a contemporary living room capable of speaking to everyone.













The Letters to Pasolini interpreted by Montanari open the Correspondence Festival in Monte del Lago