I turcs tal Friúl

Part of the series
Pasolini: Politics & Poetry
Curated by Ara H. Merjian and Mila Tenaglia
On the 50th anniversary of the death of Pier Paolo Pasolini (1922-1975)

U.S. Premiere Screening
I turcs tal Friúl (The Turks in Friuli)
(1996, Video Edition for RAI5, 93 min.)

Theatrical drama
Written in 1944 by
Pier Paolo Pasolini

Original stage production (1995)
Directed by
Elio De Capitani

Music by Giovanna Marini
Costumes by Carlo Sala

In FRIULIAN with ENGLISH surtitles and ITALIAN subtitles

Introduction (in English) by Laura Caparrotti (Kairos Italy Theater)

I Turcs tal Friúl (The Turks in Friuli) is a theatrical drama by Pier Paolo Pasolini, written around 1944 in Casarsa. The play recounts the story of a Turkish invasion of Friuli in 1499, capturing the people’s anxious waiting and collective fear as they face the looming threat. It remains the only text Pasolini ever wrote in the Friulian language, and stands as a rare and powerful expression of his early poetic vision. This legendary staging by Elio De Capitani premiered on June 11, 1995, at the Arsenale in Venice, as part of the Biennale Teatro 1995. The video presented here was filmed on August 25, 1996, during a special daytime performance at the Agriturismo I Colonos, Villa Caccia di Lestizza (Udine).

1996 Video Direction & Original Editing: Remigio Romano
2015 Remastered & Re-edited Edition: Remigio Romano and Elio De Capitani
Camera Operators: Remigio Romano, Dianello Pitton, Vittorio Lizzit
Italian Subtitles: Annarita Signore
Video Production: Teatro dell’Elfo
in collaboration with Associazione Culturale “I Colonos”
Special thanks to Teatro dell’Elfo and to everyone who made this screening possible.

Musical Assistant – Francesca Breschi
Assistant Director – Francesco Frongia

Cast
Lussia Colùs – Lucilla Morlacchi
Pauli Colùs – Fabiano Fantini
Meni Colùs – Renato Rinaldi
Nisiuti – Manuel Buttus
The Priest – Giovanni Visentin

More info here

Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò presents Pasolini: Politics & Poetry, on the fiftieth anniversary of Pier Paolo Pasolini’s death. The artist endures as a figure of controversy and contradiction, yet this milestone demands more than commemoration: it calls for a critical interrogation of his literary and cinematic oeuvre—vast, fractured, and unruly—alongside the political and intellectual commitments that continue to resist facile categorization. Curated by Professor and author Ara H. Merjian and creative producer Mila Tenaglia, the program runs from November 3 to 14 and pursues a multidisciplinary engagement with Pasolini’s work, traversing the languages of music, cinema, theater, and scholarly inquiry. Rather than merely honoring his legacy, the initiative seeks to restore the vitality and provocation of his thought and poetics, with particular attention to how contemporary artists and scholars have reinterpreted, contested, and claimed his intellectual and artistic inheritance. Pasolini: Politics & Poetry extends beyond screenings of Pasolini’s films—drawn from cinetecas, the Criterion Collection, and the Archivi Luce—to embrace works by directors and filmmakers who have discovered in his vision a wellspring for creative dialogue. This convergence of past and present positions the initiative not as a nostalgic ritual but as a living encounter with one of the twentieth century’s most formidable intellectuals, enriched by performances, a video installation exhibition, conversations, and academic interventions. Pasolini’s death—among the most notorious and contested episodes in Italian history—was not simply the murder of a homosexual man, but an event in which politics, literature, and society collided in ways that remain unresolved.