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20 April1930
An outing in Lucera
Author
Mario Cessi
Format
9,5mm
Credits
Music & mix audio by Pierpaolo Ovarini | Scuola di Sound Design del Conservatorio di Musica di Bologna.

Easter outing around Lucera, on the Mastrolilli family estate. The family is that of the wife of filmmaker Mario Cessi (1899), a young lawyer from Le Marche who moved to Apulia in 1924, where he met Maria, whom he married two years later. Today is 20 April 1930: a buggy drives along a dirt road in the countryside, driven by another Mario, the filmmaker's father-in-law, who greets by taking off his hat. The gig is followed by another buggy, much to everyone's amusement. In the courtyard of the country house, lunch is prepared - we recognise Maria, and little Ugo, the couple's son. And then everyone strolls through the fields and olive groves, the farmers watch, perhaps intrigued by the camera. Also in the group are the bearded Ulisse Cessi and his wife Anna, the filmmaker's parents. The Cessi and Mastrolilli, two families of whom we know little, united by marriage, just as two other, much more famous families, the Ciano and the Mussolini, will be united a few days later, on 23 April (and it is difficult to say which of the two families the lavish wedding will elevate more). In this case it will be the vicissitudes of war and a trial with a death sentence that will dramatically dissolve the union of Edda and Galeazzo, while Mario and Maria will remain together for almost forty years.

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