Philip Walsh (director)
Upfolds Media (studio)
PG (certificate)
70 (length)
25 October 2015 (released)
12 October 2015
Philip Walsh’s documentary drama film, A Sicilian Dream, is the story of a journey.
A journey that starts with a Sicilian dynasty, the Florio family, passes through the stunning beauty of Sicily and its people and reaches the whole world in the realisation of a dream.
A dream that is told through another journey, that of the two protagonists: Alain de Cadenet and Francesco Da Mosto. Together they retrace the inception, history and downfall of Italy’s most (in)famous car race: the Targa Florio.
The race was born in 1906 from the dream of the charismatic Vincenzo Florio, thus coming into the world in the fascinating and dreamy era of the Belle Èpoque.
The film uses a particular mix of historical footage, re-enactment of Targa Florio’s most exciting and dangerous moments, and the story of Alain’s and Francesco’s discovery of this gone time.
Alain’s presence is central since he gives both a first-hand outlook on the race’s world and a more detached and nostalgic viewpoint from the present.
He embodies the mortal risk and limitless excitement of the Targa Florio having been one of the racers who risked death when his Lola prototype car crashed in 1971, a few years before the race was stopped forever.
In addition to the superimposition of time-frames and stories, the documentary’s highlights are certainly the beautiful Sicilian vistas and the fast-paced montage which makes the viewer part of the race experience.
On the downside, the style is often taken over by a melodramatic outlook which oddly clashes with the predominant documentary form. Moreover, the intertitles and certain redundant camera choices could have been avoided to give more space to the numerous and insightful testimonies of past racers and audience members. The latter were, in fact, one of the core ingredients of the film as well as of the race’s history.
Finally, A Sicilian Dream proves to be an important historical document about a forgotten part of Italian history which made possible today’s safety regulations in motor racing across the world.