La Stranezza

Girgenti, 1920. Nofrio and Bastiano are gravediggers, but also “professional amateur” actors engaged in staging the tragicomedy “La trincea del rimorso, ovvero Cicciareddu e Pietruzzu”. Giovanni Verga’s 80th birthday brings Luigi Pirandello back to his hometown, and the death of the playwright’s nanny encourages his meeting with the two gravediggers. The Maestro is in a creative crisis, and by secretly observing the rehearsals of the amateur company of Nofrio and Bastiano he draws inspiration for one of his most important works, Six Characters in Search of an Author. What happens on stage is mixed with what goes on behind the scenes, and Pirandello, a silent witness to the premiere of the eccentric duo, collects ideas for the debut of his new creation, to which Nofrio and Bastiano will be invited. Reality and fiction, drama, and comedy meld together gracefully in this pleasing and fanciful film, which offers up illustrious cameos (including Renato Carpentieri in the shoes of Giovanni Verga and Luigi Lo Cascio playing the theatre company leader in charge of Six Characters).