IT | 1967 | colour | 99 min
reż|dir  Elio Petri pro|pro Giuseppe Zaccariello sce|wr Jean Curtelin, Elio Petri, Ugo Pirro zdj|ph Luigi Kuveiller muz|mus Luis Bacalov mon|ed Ruggero Mastroianni ob|cast Lino Ventura, Tino Carraro, Marcel Bozzuffi, Paolo Bonacelli, Alain Cuny, Max von Sydow dys|dis Compass Film

Sicilly of the late 60ties. An unsolved murder casts a shadow over the inhabitants of a small town. A left-wing teacher, Laurana, trying to solve the mystery of a murder, discovers  corruption of politics and priests, as well as a deep dependence of local people on the actions of Mafia. The prose of Sciascia was a source of an excellent intrigue, realized in a perfectly shot production with a star Gian Maria Volonté as Laurana. The film  combines an interesting crime story with observations of Sicily social life.  

AWARDS
1967 Cannes IFF – Award in category Best Screenplay for Jean Curtelin, Elio Petri and Ugo Pirro

DIRECTOR | Elio Petri (1929-1982)
Italian director and writer. He was born in a poor working-class family, and till 1957 he was a member of a Communist Party. Petri mostly created political movie. As a filmmaker he started as an assistant of  Giuseppe de Santis, that clearly influenced his later works. Oscar winner for the film Investigation of a Citizen Beyond Suspicion (1970) and Golden Palm winner for the film The working class goes to heaven (1971).