WAY OF PASSION

]]>HOME RUN - New cinema from Austria]]>

]]>PROPOSITIONS - Selected examples of a different cinema.]]>

The inhabitants of Trapani, Sicily, are preparing for the Good Friday procession that has taken place annually for 400 years. They get a shave and restore wooden statues or embroider their precious garments. These will later form the groups of figures for the twenty altars that depict the Passion of Christ. There is brisk activity in the church, everyone is cleaning; the men are practicing the course of events and the carrying of the immense, heavy altar images on their shoulders. (...)
Finally, the time has come: girls are dressed in white angels’ costumes, young women march past as Christ’s brides. The first “Associazione” shoulder their altar and come from the church, the brass band strikes up the funeral march. Others follow, and only now is the altars’ magnificence visible: the six-foot, strongly expressive statues with their glittering details and beautiful decoration of flowers. But also the groups of men are a feast for the eyes in their black suits or traditional dress. (Brigitta Burger-Utzer)