The documentary Toxicily is released in cinemas and was created to give voice to the people who resist and live their daily lives next to the factories. In Taranto you can see it on May 2nd at 8pm at the Cinema Teatro Orfeo. Before viewing the film there will be a meeting with Alessandro Marescotti, president of PeaceLink, Massimo Moretti, lawyer for the compensation actions of the citizens of the Tamburi district, Lunetta Franco, President of the Circolo Legambiente of Taranto and Leonardo La Porta di Giustizia for Taranto. The debate will be moderated by journalist Luciano Manna and can also be listened to on RadioVera in streaming.
On the eastern coast of Sicily, among olive and citrus groves, coasts with transparent waters and archaeological sites, stands one of the largest petrochemical centers in Europe which has been poisoning the environment and people since 1949: what coexistence can there be among the promises of the industrialized world in which we are all immersed and the health of us humans? In this area, between Augusta, Priolo, Gargallo and Melilli, up to the gates of Syracuse, very high quantities of toxic chemical substances are concentrated which have contaminated the soil, air, water and compromise the health of the inhabitants.
Made by the French director Francois Xavier Destors and the Palermo geographer Alfonso Pinto, the film is produced by Elda Productions (France) and Ginko Film (Italy), with the support of Eurimages, the Francia Italia CNC MIC fund, Sicilia Film Commission, Rai Cinema and the patronage of Legambiente. Selected at the Fipadoc in Biarritz, special mention at the Festival dei Popoli in Florence, after the first dates in Sicily the film also arrives in Puglia.
Ginko Film states: “Our editorial line concerns the production of documentaries that address global issues, including man’s relationship with the environment. Toxicily by is a film about the limits of the Anthropocene and the costs of progress that tells the story of an area devastated by the environmental impact due to the presence of a petrochemical center on the Sicilian coast. We are bringing the film to theaters in some Italian cities with the patronage of Legambiente.” According to Ginko Film for Taranto it is “an important stage in a place that is experiencing the similar dramatic consequences of the Ilva industrial area and which will stimulate deep reflection on environmental and socioeconomic issues”.
In Toxicily, seventy years after the arrival of the first refineries, the two authors explore the themes of environmental and health sacrifice, restoring the plurality of points of view of the inhabitants themselves: if this industrial enterprise has made it possible to overcome the miseries of a a precarious agricultural economy, transforming fishermen, farmers and shepherds into workers, has however created both a health emergency, with an increase in diseases and malformations, and an environmental one, with pollution. Faced with this massacre, the majority of citizens seem to be resigned, still trapped in occupational blackmail. «Better to die of cancer than of starvation» is one of the phrases that often returns in the film. Others, however, resist and fight so that this injustice is no longer silenced and is finally recognized by the institutions.
Like Don Palmiro, a priest, who today pays the price for his commitment for the health of his fellow citizens, Lina and his daughter Chiara who has been fighting against a rare congenital malformation since the age of 7, Andrea who tried during his life as a worker to limit, in a small way, the damage caused by industry to the environment and health. And again Nino who, despite his blindness, shares memories of a lost world and Giusi who, after the loss of his father due to an occupational disease, fights against everything and everyone in the name of environmental justice. Through the complexity of the relationships between inhabitants, territory and industrialization, the questions, doubts and limits of the world to come emerge.
Director’s notes
The tragic fate of the Augusta-Priolo-Melilli-Syracuse area, which hosts one of the largest petrochemical production centers in Europe, still remains largely unknown to the general public. Yet, in those parts things are known, heard and seen. Pollution is everywhere. It flows from the taps, makes the air unbreathable, contaminates the soil. Cancer and birth defects abound far beyond middle school. Yet, many continue to go to the factory.
In this context where sometimes people prefer to “die of cancer than of hunger”, the film reveals an invisible, unprecedented Sicily, made up of contrasts and paradoxes. It insinuates itself into the heart of a heavy silence in order to free the voice of those and those who try to open their eyes to all this, to the sacrifice of an entire territory and its inhabitants destined for latent destruction. By persisting in living there, these men and women have in a certain way determined their destiny.
But is a future still possible at a time when factories are now old and sometimes in ruins, when the costs of reclamation are too high, and when diseases and malformations increase again and again? What else to do but resign ourselves to accept the reality of an ongoing ecocide whose consequences it is difficult to measure on the air we breathe, the water we drink or the land we cultivate.
This area offers us perhaps the ultimate proof of the broken illusions of post-war liberalism, of that globalized ideal now on its last legs, of the absence of justice, science and politics in environmental matters and, ultimately, of that toxic coexistence between man and factory. The purpose of this film is, therefore, to provide a portrait of a sacrificed territory which in a certain sense summarizes the problems of many others. Through the complexity of the relationships between inhabitants, territory and industrialization, the questions, doubts and limits of the world to come emerge.
The authors
François-Xavier Destors is a director whose films focus on the hidden side of mass crimes. He is the author of numerous historical documentaries and television films that explore sacrificed territories and communities. His first feature-length documentary, Rwanda, la surface de réparation (86′, 2014) tells the story of the genocide through the social, political and cultural role of sport in Rwanda. Norilsk, l’étreinte de glace (2018) is a cinematic exploration of our ability to adapt to and survive the collective history of our industrial societies. François-Xavier Destors continues his cinematic exploration of the sacrificed territories by making Toxicily (2023) about one of the largest ecocides at the gates of Europe.
Alfonso Pinto is a researcher in geography and visual cultures at the University of Poitiers. From 2018 to 2022 he directed the Images Pole of the École Urbaine de Lyon. His research concerns the relationships between human and social sciences and audiovisual practices. Since 2018 he has been dealing with the imaginaries, aesthetics and experiences of the Anthropocene with particular attention to the theme of environmental and industrial catastrophes. He is the author of numerous scientific and popular publications and in 2021 he published the essay The Lighter of the Anthropocene at Armillaria. Very short history of industrial disaster. Toxicily is his first cinematic experience.
