Part of the series
Pasolini: Politics & Poetry
Curated by Ara H. Merjian and Mila Tenaglia
On the 50th anniversary of the death of Pier Paolo Pasolini (1922-1975)
US PREMIERE
Screening
I turcs tal Friul (The Turks in Friuli)
(1996, Video Edition for RAI5, 93 min.)
Theatrical drama
Written in 1944 by
Pier Paolo Pasolini
In FRIULIAN with ENGLISH surtitles and ITALIAN subtitles
Introduction (in English) by Laura Caparrotti (Kairos Italy Theater)
Original stage production (1995)
Directed by
Elio De Capitani
I Turcs tal Friul (The Turks in Friuli) is a theatrical drama by Pier Paolo Pasolini, written around 1944 in Casarsa. The play recounts the story of a Turkish invasion of Friuli in 1499, capturing the people’s anxious waiting and collective fear as they face the looming threat. It remains the only text Pasolini ever wrote in the Friulian language, and stands as a rare and powerful expression of his early poetic vision. This legendary staging by Elio De Capitani premiered on June 11, 1995, at the Arsenale in Venice, as part of the Biennale Teatro 1995. The video presented here was filmed on August 25, 1996, during a special daytime performance at the Agriturismo I Colonos, Villa Caccia di Lestizza (Udine).
Music by Giovanna Marini
Costumes by Carlo Sala
Musical Assistant – Francesca Breschi
Assistant Director – Francesco Frongia
Cast
Lussia Colùs – Lucilla Morlacchi
Pauli Colùs – Fabiano Fantini
Meni Colùs – Renato Rinaldi
Nisiuti – Manuel Buttus
The Priest – Giovanni Visentin
Matia de Montíc – Francesco Ursella
Zuan Colùs – Angelo Battel
Zuan Gambilìn – Aldo Baracchini
Bastian de Jacùs – Claudio Moretti
Anuta Perlina – Claudia Grimaz (chorus leader)
Chorus: Sandra Cosatto, Rita Maffei, Chiara Minca, Elena Molinari, Claudia Mortali, Lucia Staccone, Daniela Zorzini
S’ciefin Cuarnùs – Massimo Somaglino
Cenci Verulìn – Elvio Scruzzi
Asiùt – Gigi Del Ponte
Pieri Renùt – Giorgio Monte
Nalo Jovachìn – Marco Brollo
Villagers: Monica Aguzzi, Alberto Berettini, Antonio Cantarutti, Carlo Corubolo, Federico Corubolo, Massimo Furlano, Alessandro Gasparini, Enrico Noviello, Andrea Orel, Xavier Louis Rebut
1996 Video Direction & Original Editing: Remigio Romano
2015 Remastered & Re-edited Edition: Remigio Romano and Elio De Capitani
Camera Operators: Remigio Romano, Dianello Pitton, Vittorio Lizzit
Italian Subtitles: Annarita Signore
Video Production: Teatro dell’Elfo
in collaboration with Associazione Culturale “I Colonos”
Special thanks to Teatro dell’Elfo and to everyone who made this screening possible.
The oiginal Production was produced by
Teatro dell’Elfo
Teatro Stabile del Friuli Venezia Giulia
In co-production with
La Biennale di Venezia
Autonomous Region of Friuli Venezia Giulia
In collaboration with
Parco Rurale di San Floriano, Polcenigo
40th Mittelfest 1994
Province of Pordenone
Associazione per la Prosa di Pordenone
Ente Regionale Teatrale
With the essential support of
Municipality of San Vito al Tagliamento
and its Ca Bianca (former silk-drying house)
Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò presents Pasolini: Politics & Poetry, on the fiftieth anniversary of Pier Paolo Pasolini’s death. The artist endures as a figure of controversy and contradiction, yet this milestone demands more than commemoration: it calls for a critical interrogation of his literary and cinematic oeuvre—vast, fractured, and unruly—alongside the political and intellectual commitments that continue to resist facile categorization. Curated by Professor and author Ara H. Merjian and creative producer Mila Tenaglia, the program runs from November 3 to 14 and pursues a multidisciplinary engagement with Pasolini’s work, traversing the languages of music, cinema, theater, and scholarly inquiry. Rather than merely honoring his legacy, the initiative seeks to restore the vitality and provocation of his thought and poetics, with particular attention to how contemporary artists and scholars have reinterpreted, contested, and claimed his intellectual and artistic inheritance. Pasolini: Politics & Poetry extends beyond screenings of Pasolini’s films—drawn from cinetecas, the Criterion Collection, and the Archivi Luce—to embrace works by directors and filmmakers who have discovered in his vision a wellspring for creative dialogue. This convergence of past and present positions the initiative not as a nostalgic ritual but as a living encounter with one of the twentieth century’s most formidable intellectuals, enriched by performances, a video installation exhibition, conversations, and academic interventions. Pasolini’s death—among the most notorious and contested episodes in Italian history—was not simply the murder of a homosexual man, but an event in which politics, literature, and society collided in ways that remain unresolved.
