After the burial, the body of the partisan commisioner of Justice and Freedom Emanuele Artom
was no longer found. For years, many people have tried to understand why. The young boy
Emanuele, fond of democratic culture and jewish tradition, through his political and spiritual
way into the partisan formations, is a clear example of the clandestine experience as seen by a
studious and researcher; through the reading of his diary, a real historical testament of a man
who was already thinking of our future, of the birth of a supportive society getting over twenty
years of fascist dictatorship.
The idea of a documentary film about Emanuele Artom comes from our previous project about
the Resistance period, which brought us to live in the Pellice Valley for about one year long,
getting in touch with some Partisans from the formations of Justice and Freedom operating in
that area.
During the long evening conversations, the name of E. A. was often mentioned as an excellent
example of that part of the Partisan movement that had not only a miltary role, but mostly the
political role, that is all those people considering the clandestine experience and the alliance
against the fascist regime, as the basis of the democratic re-birth of this country.
This name, when we came back to the Po valley, was once again put in the spotlight in the South
Mirafiori district, the first headquarter of our Association, when we discovered that a street was
dedicated to him, and moreover there was a quarrelling, among those old Partisans, about the
way his death took place.
For us, young people, finding ourselves into this microscopic history, that you won't find in the
history books, was so stimulating that we decided to do a deep study that put us in touch with
Artom's historical will: “I Diari” (The Diaries), written from January 1940 to February 1944 and
recently published by Bollati Boringhieri.
The encounter with this text was illuminating: the writing was fluent, simple and complex at the
same time, because of the topics touched on. It gave us a different dimension of the experience
of the II World War in Piedmont.
On these premises, we began to look for men and women who personally met Emanuele Artom,
in order to get a more realistic image of this young jewish boy who decided, culture-armed, to
challenge the fascist dictatorship.
- 2013 Scuola d’Italia di New York
Con partecipazione di ragazzi di scuole pubbliche e private – Presentazione a cura di Guri Schwarz e Tullio Levi.
- 2013 Istituto Italiano di Cultura di New York
Nell’ambito delle iniziative sul Giorno della Memoria organizzate dal Centro Primo Levi di NY, insieme a NYU, Columbia, CUNY e Istituto di Cultura sotto l'egida del Consolato. Presentazione a cura di Guri Schwarz e Tullio Levi.
- 2012 Istituto Italiano di Cultura di Tel Aviv
Presentazione a cura di Tullio Levi e Francesco Momberti
- 2012 Istituto Italiano di Cultura di Haifa
Presentazione a cura di Tullio Levi e Francesco Momberti