(by Francesco Gallo) (ANSA) - ROME, JANUARY 22 - A STARRY SKY OVER THE GHETTO DIROMA by Giulio Base mixes past and present, also allowing in evidence how certain values are inevitably timeless.
In this case in the film - available exclusively from 27 January on RaiPlay and then broadcast on Rai1 on Saturday 6 February at 22.50 - the values are those of remembrance, of memory, of the Shoah starting from that 16 October 1943, also known as the 'Black Saturday of the Jews' .
That day there was a massive roundup in the ghetto, the Roman Jewish quarter, by the Gestapo along with some fascists.
A manhunt that involved the capture of 1,259 people: 689 women, 363 men and 207 children.
From this tragic story of the past, in which, among other things, a nun from the convent of Sant'Alessio is seen saving a child from being captured, we move on to contemporary Rome.
Here in an attic the eighteen year old Sofia (Bianca Panconi), daughter of a famous international pianist (Giulio Base), finds in an old suitcase a moving letter from a woman who tells of a Jewish girl who disappeared that very night.
Along with the letter is also a yellowed photograph of the little girl who also has a name: Sarah Cohen.
For the sensitive Sofia, that photo and that letter soon become an obsession.
Where has Sarah gone?
Together with her friends and some Jewish boys, the girl contacts the Jewish community in search of some news.
Soon Sarah Cohen will be the object of a real cult by these young people, so much so that at a certain point it will be well thought, while the searches continue, to pay homage to her with a play dedicated to her.
Meanwhile, reality, as often happens, will not fail to amaze everyone with the most incredible of twists.
(HANDLE).