The documentary “Toxicily” is released in cinemas. Directed by Francois Xavier Destors and Alfonso Pinto, the film that gives voice to those who live on the coasts of the Syracuse petrochemical hub begins its tour in Sicily on April 18th. 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. A story still largely unknown to the general public but which can be seen, heard and breathed.
The documentary Toxicily (France-Italy, 2023, 75′) is released in cinemas and was created to give voice to the people who resist here and live their daily lives next to the factories. Made by the French director Francois Xavier Destors and the Palermo geographer and photographer 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 and Rai Cinema, and the patronage of Legambiente.
Selected at the Fipadoc in Biarritz, special mention at the Festival dei Popoli in Florence, the film arrives in cinemas with a significant tour starting from Sicily: on 18 April in Palermo, on 19 in Messina and on 20 April it is expected in “its” Syracuse , in the presence of the directors and protagonists. It will be in Veneto at the end of April and then in Puglia where it will film from 2 to 6 May starting from Taranto. All updated dates ginkofilm.it
Seventy years after the arrival of the first refineries, the two authors explore the themes of environmental and health sacrifice, returning the plurality of points of view of the inhabitants themselves: if this industrial enterprise has made it possible to overcome the miseries of a precarious agricultural economy However, by transforming fishermen, farmers and shepherds into workers, it has 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.
Tags: Toxicily documentary Priolo petrochemical plant released cinemas
