On April 12 in Rome, a screening of The Big Question, at the Barberini Cinema, the documentary by Cabras and Molinari made on the set of Mel Gibson’s film The Passion of the Christ and never distributed in Italy.
Winner of numerous awards at festivals around the world, long opposed by both Catholic and secular circles, banned from Italian cinemas. A small masterpiece created by two Italian directors, which seemed to have been forgotten forever. A ‘lost’ documentary which, after almost 20 years of waiting, is finally preparing to land in the capital. Thanks to the interest of Thomas Torelli and the staff of UAM.TV, it will be screened in Rome on April 12th The Big Question by Francesco Cabras and Alberto Molinari, released in 2004. The documentary was filmed between Rome and Matera, on the set of the film The Passion of the Christ by Mel Gibsonused as an atypical microcosm and a multifaceted social container, and had a very troubled history full of controversies, which hindered and prevented its diffusion among the general international public, despite the immediate recognition by the critics (as witnessed by the victory of important awards such as Sun Valley Spiritual Film Festival, Trenton International Film Festival, JEFF Film Festival and San Giò Film Festival).
The screening will be held on Wednesday 12 April at 9 pm at the Cinema Barberini.
An important occasion for all cinema enthusiasts who will thus have the opportunity to discover (or rediscover) a small ‘jewel’ long absent from the film programming of the Peninsula.
The story behind the documentary
The Big Question, directed by Francesco Cabras and Alberto Molinari, was a work with a complex production history. The documentary was filmed on the set of the film The Passion of the Christ. Mel Gibson, enthusiastic about the idea, co-produces it to a large extent with his Icon production company but stops the film after seeing the definitive editing, does not distribute it and blocks its viewing due to precise “theological differences” on the content.
The documentary was supposed to be released in cinemas around the world with or immediately after The Passion of the Christ. After a year of negotiations, Gibson suddenly makes a nice gesture by freeing it and giving away all the rights to the authors and co-producers without asking for cuts, out of respect for a work that he had greatly appreciated from an exclusively artistic point of view. Francesco Cabras played the bad thief Gesmas in his film. Immediately selected at the AFI, the American Film Institute Festival in Los Angeles, ‘The Big Question’ gets a double page spread with enthusiastic critics in Variety.
Andrew Herwitz (Michael Moore’s former agent for ‘Fahrenheit 9/11’) buys the sales rights, subsequently sold to ThinkFilm, one of the most authoritative independent distributions (Oscar for ‘Born into Brothels’). In 2006 TBQ was released without promotion in US cinemas, achieved considerable success with critics and audiences in more than 30 international festivals but was not distributed in Italian cinemas.
Both in Italy and in the USA, the institutional church welcomes the film coldly. By definitions, quoted literally, many Catholic circles have not considered TBQ “quite religious and respectful” while in Italy some contexts of progressive secular culture have considered it “cinematographically unclassifiable and not critical enough of institutional religion”. On the other hand some parishes, individual priests and interreligious spiritual research circles use TBQ as a tool for reflection and teaching. The Big Question it was filmed between Matera and Rome and has ordinary people from Lucania and Rome among its essential protagonists. One of the most evident sources of inspiration for the documentary is Pier Paolo Pasolini’s ‘Comizi d’amore’.
The themes of the documentary
What were the existential and absolute questions that many of us began to ask ourselves and ask teachers, priests and parents between puberty and adolescence?
The Big Question comes from a very simple and at the same time quite complex idea: asking extremely direct questions to a large sample of people about their own, intimate perception of the divine. Microcosm and surprising ‘sociological container’ of this sample is the set of a debated film on the passion of Jesus Christ, a real non-place portrayed in an estranged way. The cornerstone of the documentary, which you watch as if you were reading a singular lay catechism notebook, is the cultural, religious, social and geographical heterogeneity present on the set. A vast representation of human nature follows one another by crossing the topics posed by the questions in a search that touches everyone, believers, atheists, agnostics or distracted. Allegorical soul and conductor of all the testimonies is the almost hieratic and dreamlike journey of a white dog that crosses valleys, mountains and ghost towns of Lucania.
The rediscovery
Since last December The Big Question it was distributed both within the UAM.TV catalog and through a tour of public screenings, which has already visited some Italian cities. To organize a screening, contact [email protected] directly.
