Chi è senza colpa is a two-part journey, through northern Italy, with its fog and urban and exurban sprawl; and southern Italy, with its implacably sunny days, where everything is in your face, even your secrets. A fragile country whose broken bones can cut you, Italy is now bared by some of the brightest lights in contemporary Italian noir, their words digging deep below the veneer of a nation tired of wearing the same mask all the time. The film is a full immersion in the dark heart of Milan, Turin, Udine, Padova, and Sciascia’s Sicily, the last stop, but appearances deceive. The journey continues along the line of the palm – but that’s another story.
screenplay
Katiuscia Magliarisi
cinematography and editing
Riccardo Alessandri
Teche Rai archives research
Andrea D’Alfonso
with
Orso Tosco
Maurizio Blini
Massimo Carlotto
Piero Colaprico
Luca Crovi
Alessandro Curioni
Maurizio De Giovanni
Omar Di Monopoli
Vins Gallico
Gabriella Genisi
Antonio Lanzetta
Gaetano Savatteri
Ilaria Tuti
Mariolina Venezia
executive producer
Alessandro Rustichelli
production
Rai – Contenuti Digitali e Transmediali
“Chi è senza colpa is a road trip through Italy as seen through its noir genre, guided by Orso Tosco, writer and traveler who ends up a character in the film, a contemporary Virgil who leads us to cities and their outer edges, and suspended vistas where darkness blurs into reality. The film grew out of the need to explore the roots and different forms of noir in Italian literature, and to reflect, as well, on what generates the genre: society, guilt, marginalization, violence, or humanity hiding behind crimes and other obsessions of our times. A visual and compositional rigor informs the directing and recreates the noir atmospheres, interwoven with archive materials, interviews, and landscapes observed. The cinematography works on shadows, silences, faces, and spaces, in order to turn the locations into characters: silent witnesses to stories that only noir fiction is bold enough to show us. The editing is a narrative device in itself, aiming for immersion more than explanation, and a journey during which truth and fiction are intermingled. Noir fiction undergoes the same process. It’s an ambiguous territory where others are never the only ones to blame, and where Orso Tosco’s exploration wends its way into the human soul.” (Riccardo Alessandri)
Riccardo Alessandri, a filmmaker from Turin, weds social critique and aesthetics in his work. He got his start with a Super 8 camera, in a family of cinephiles. His credits include: Tutti all’opera (2019 Moige Award) and the series Pianeta Sofia, dedicated to sustainability. He has worked with Gad Lerner on documentaries such as L’approdo, Ricchi e Poveri, and Noi partigiani.
Katiuscia Magliarisi is an author, journalist, and college teacher. Born in Milan, she lives in Rome, after studying film at UAL in London. She is interested in history, pop culture, and iconic imagery. She made her literary debut with Il ruggito della strada (Milieu), a cop story in the manner of the classic 1970s poliziottesco, combined with a family tale tinged with noir. Writer of RAI cultural programs, documentaries, and podcasts, from 2013 to 2021, she was one of the curators of the Kiss Me Deadly crime movie showcase. She works with art departments on TV series and international films and conducts film workshops at various Italian universities.
