Year 1618. During the night, mercenaries hired by the Spanish ambassador prepare to sack Venice, threatening its independence. But Jaffier, one of the leaders of the conspiracy, is dazzled by the beauty of the city and decides to save it, even at the cost of betraying his companions. This story starts with a short story that becomes a drama that inspires a film, which is discussed in a book. The story is The Conspiracy of the Spaniards against the Republic of Venice (1679) by Abbot César Vichard de Saint-Réal, a French historian and writer who was among the first authors of the historical novel. The drama is Venice Saves by Simone Weil who, inspired by the story of the conspirators narrated by Saint-Réal, transforms it into a luminous reflection on the beauty and fragility of the perfect city, ‘which is about to be plunged into the horrendous dream of force’, and on the torment of Jaffier, ‘an attentive man who suddenly sees it and saves it’. The film is Sventura by Serena Nono, which premiered at the Trieste Film Festival in 2023. The director, who had already told the story of the repentant conspirator in her previous Venice Save (2013), takes the narrative from Jaffier’s exile on a small island in the lagoon, after being banished from the Serenissima Republic for high treason. Here he will live years as a hermit, reflecting on his choice and wondering whether man is really capable of saving as well as destroying. Finally, the book is Sventura. Around the film by Serena Nono, conceived by Giovanni Benzoni and published by La Toletta edizioni, a choral book that starts from the observations of viewers, film critics, theologians and philosophers, closely touching on the theme of salvation in Venice even in our times. Publisher Giovanni Pelizzari and director Serena Nono present the book and film on 6 December at the Casa del Cinema.
