Montreal’s Leonardo DaVinci Centre in Saint Leonard was filled with emotion on Thursday evening as hundreds came together to watch “Il Paese: The Village” — a new documentary following a group of Sicilian-Canadians returning to the homes they were once reluctant to leave.
“The encounters, the reunions were so emotional,” said Shelley Tepperman, the film’s director and producer. “So full of love.”
But the documentary isn’t only about those who left.
It also tells the story of those who stayed behind, in a village that has been dramatically transformed by decades of immigration.
“I was going to be making a film about these Montrealers going back to their birthplace and having an experience which was true,” explained Tepperman. “But what was really a revelation was discovering the village and the story of the people who stayed behind.”
A tender exploration of displacement, the film immerses viewers in a rarely seen Italy.
From start to finish, the film was a seven-year journey to create. It includes a 2019 trip to Joppolo, an agricultural village whose residents share their experiences with decades of depopulation.
“You work on something like a film for a very long time and you just don’t know, you don’t know if it’s going to speak to people. And this tells you that it’s a story that was worth telling,” explained Maria Francesca Lo Dico, who was featured in the film. “And that it’s a story that people want to listen to and celebrate.”
The film follows several people, including Lo Dico and her mother Angela who visited the village together for the first time in over two decades.
“I speak about my past, my childhood, coming to Canada,” she said. “Many beautiful things.”
Angela left Italy back in 1966. Today, she is the proud owner of Montreal’s San Remo Florist, which celebrates its 60th Anniversary next year.
The film is set to tour across Canada with many more community screenings.
“It’s about beauty,” said Tepperman. “It’s about the unbreakable loving family bonds that nothing can really break.”
