WAITING FOR THE SUN. WHEN EVERY MEETING CARRIES LOSS
DECOLONIAL ARENAS
Rome, Tor Marancia Tower Park | 8-14 September 2025
DECOLONIAL ARENAS (Arene Decoloniali) is the festival that brings the theme of decoloniality to the center of public debate — a core principle of Un Ponte Per's approach to international cooperation and solidarity.
For one week, the Parco della Torre di Tor Marancia (Viale di Tor Marancia 31, Rome) becomes a space for discussion and political imagination to explore through images, words and memories the colonial past and its legacy in the present. A programme interweaving art cinema, literature, photography and public meetings, in an open dialogue between arts and activism, history and identity.
The festival is realised under the patronage of the Municipality VIII of the Municipality of Rome.
WHAT TO EXPECT
The first edition 2025 will host the screening of 10 films, documentaries and short films from different geographical contexts, six book presentations, two photo exhibitions and a bilingual Arabic-Italian reading with musical accompaniment, to give voice to the removed memories and resistances of colonised peoples.
The films are subtitled in Italian and introduced in sign language. The arena is accessible to persons with mobility disabilities.
There is also a book stand by the Liberia Griot and afood area.
HOMAGE TO PIER PAOLO PASOLINI
On the 50th anniversary of his death, the festival opens with a retrospective dedicated to Pier Paolo Pasolini. Two days dedicated to his cinematographic works exploring his gaze on otherness, with particular attention to his relationship with Africa and the East.
EXHIBITIONS
During the festival and afterwards, two photographic exhibitions to broaden the scope of reflection:
DECOLONIAL ARENAS AWARD
To recognise and valorise the contribution of cinema to the decolonial movement, we have established the Premio Arene Decoloniali, awarded each year to one of the films in the festival according to the opinion of experts and the audience. The prize will consist of a specially created work of art each year. (Regulations of the Decolonial Arenas Award).
HOW TO GET TO THE FESTIVAL
The entrance to the Tor Marancia Tower Park - in Viale di Tor Marancia 31 - is easily accessible by public transport, a few metres from the Colombo - Rufino stop of bus lines 714, 716, 30 or the Tor Marancia - Rufino stop of bus line 160.
The programme follows.
PROGRAM
DECOLONIAL ARENAS
1st Edition
8-14 September 2025
Tor Marancia Tower Park
Viale di Tor Marancia 31, Rome
MONDAY 8 SEPTEMBER
Pasolini & the Orient: The Author and the Otherness
This evening is dedicated to a critical look at some of Pier paolo Pasolini's cinematographic works, in particular exploring the author's oriental imagery, not as mere exoticism, but as a complex authorial construction. Through his 'journey to the Orient', Pasolini interrogates otherness and reflects on his own role as a European author.
Presentation of the book Orient (to) Express. Film di viaggio, etno-grafie, teoria d'autore with the author, Professor Marco Dalla Gassa, expert in Orientalism, Arab literature and postcolonial studies (Ca' Foscari University of Venice). Dalla Gassa will present Pasolini's works projected afterwards in dialogue with the audience.
Short film: The Walls of Sana'a (Yemen, 1971 | 14')*
Pasolini launches an appeal to save the ancient city of Sana'a, threatened by modernisation. A poetic and political short film on the link between culture and urban landscape.
Screening of the film Il fiore delle Mille e una notte (Italy, 1974 | 129')
Inspired by oriental tales, the film weaves stories of love, adventure and desire in a fairy-tale and sensual world, where the search for the other is also self-discovery.
Trigger points: frequent nudity, explicit scenes of a sexual nature, references to slavery and violence (not graphic).
TUESDAY 9 SEPTEMBER
Africa as a mirror of revolutionary utopia
This day will explore the limits and insights of Pasolini's view of the 'Third World'. Pasolini speaks of Africa and for Africa, but from an external, albeit empathetic and politically committed point of view.
Human Library with the Association Movimento Italiani Senza Cittadinanza and the Shanghai People's School.
Introductory viewing meeting with Professor Vito Varricchio, (history of Africa), in dialogue with Lorenzo Teodonio, historian by passion, author of Razza Partigiana, scholar of decolonial criticism.
Screening of the film Appunti per un Orestiade africana (Italy, 1970 | 65'). Film-essay in the form of visual notes, in which Pier Paolo Pasolini imagines a possible transposition of Aeschylus' Oresteia in post-colonial Africa, interweaving visual notes, music and political reflections on the continent as a mythical and revolutionary space.
Trigger points: references to violence and slavery (not explicitly depicted).
WEDNESDAY 10 SEPTEMBER
Artistic heritage and re-significations
Presentation of the "Echoes from Dogali" initiative with Giulia Grechi and the Tezeta Association; followed by a presentation by Rosa Anna Di Lella on the collections of the former Colonial Museum and the activities of the Museum of Civilisations (MUCIV). With the collaboration of the Yekatit12-19February Network.
Screening of Abandon de poste by Mohamed Bouhari (Morocco / Belgium, 2010 | ca. 15) Silent confrontation between a security guard and a life-size African statue: the former on duty in front of a building, the latter chained like ancient slaves at the entrance to an art gallery. An ironic and disenchanted look at the stereotypes of colonialism and slavery through the figures of the 'new slaves' of western society.
Online connection with the director* and screening of the film Dahomey by Mati Diop (France/Senegal, 2024 | ca. 67').
A Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival, it narrates the return to Benin of stolen objects from the Kingdom of Dahomey during colonisation and kept at the Musée du quai Branly in Paris.
THURSDAY 11 SEPTEMBER
Visions of the colonial removed
Presentation of the book Visions of the Remover, with authors Daniela Ricci and Micaela Veronesi (National Film Archive of the Resistance) in dialogue with Leonardo De Franceschi and the Yekatit12-19February Network.
Screening of the film ADWA - AN AFRICAN VICTORY, by director Haile Gerima, (Ethiopia/USA, 1999 | ca. 90'); Through testimonies, archive materials and historical narration, the film reconstructs the Battle of Adwa (1896), in which Ethiopian forces defeated the Italian colonial army. A militant work that celebrates African resistance and collective memory against colonialism.
Trigger points: Descriptions and images of war and colonial violence.
Liaison with director Haile Gerima , in dialogue with Micaela Veronesi and Daniela Ricci(National Film Archive of the Resistance), commentary on the film and debate
FRIDAY 12 SEPTEMBER
Decolonial Resistances
Presentation and readings of extracts from the book Il Re Ombra (The Shadow King) by Maaza Mengiste, with the author in connection, together with Sandro Triulzi (Archivio Memorie Migranti) and the writer Djarah Kan*; in collaboration with the Yekatit12-19febbraio Network. Moderator: Soumaila Diawara.
Screening of the film SEARCHING FOR AMANI (Kenya/USA, 2023 | Director: Debra Aroko | ca. 87' | Produced by Generation Africa - COE) When his father is murdered, Amani, a 13-year-old boy, starts filming to give voice to his grief and search for answers. The documentary follows his journey between grief, memory and justice, offering an intimate and courageous look at rural violence in Kenya and youth resilience.
SATURDAY 13 SEPTEMBER
Decolonising the school
Presentation of the book 'Tra i Bianchi di scuola' by Espérance Hakuzwimana together with Daniela Ionita from the Italian Movement without Citizenship, writer Christian Raimo, in connection, artist Takoua Ben Mohamed, and Angela Mona from the education working group Un Ponte Per.
Screening of the film A.O.C by Samy Sidali (2022, France | ca. 18′) in which Latefa and his two sons, Walid and Ptissam, advised by the administration, Frenchify their names when they acquire French citizenship. The film is inspired by a true story.
Followed by the film Soleil Ô (Mauritania/France, 1970 | 98') by M. Hondo. An African immigrant manages to arrive in Paris, he comes up against indifference, rejection, humiliation and racism; presentation of the film by Micaela Veronesi and Daniela Ricci (National Film Archive of the Resistance).
Screening of the short film MUNA (UK, 2023 | 19′)
Muna, a 13-year-old British-Somali boy, wants to go on a school trip. Before departure, she receives the news of her grandfather's death in Somalia. During the funeral, she discovers through traditional music (the oud) a new part of her own identity and roots.
SUNDAY 14 SEPTEMBER
Between poetry and memory: testimonies of Italian colonisation in Libya
Introduction by UPP and presentation of the poems translated from Libyan to Italian by the poet Fadil al Shalmani, deported to Favignana, the poems will be interpreted by the director, journalist and screenwriter Khalifa Abo Khraisse and the actress Valbona Kunxhiu, accompanied by the projection of the short film La terra dei padri by Francesco Di Gioia. This will be followed by the presentation of the book Il mio solo tormento - Canto di el Agheila, by Rajab Abuhweish, written in the Italian concentration camp in Libya of El Agheila, with readings by Mario Eleno and Manuela Mosè (editors of the Italian edition of the poem). During the readings there will be a musical contribution by Luca Chiavinato, a musician who contributed to the soundtrack of the film "The Order of Things".
Yesterday's Colonialism and Today's Migrations
Introduction to the film "L'ordine delle cose" with Giulia Torrini, president of Un Ponte Per; Marina Pierlorenzi, president of ANPI Rome; Papia Aktar, head of migration ARCI Roma and Silvano Falocco, Yekatit12-19Febbraio Network, Ass. Tezeta.
Presentation of the 'Decolonial Arenas' Award
Award ceremony for the film in the exhibition that has most contributed to bridging the repressed colonial memory
Screening of the film L'ordine delle cose by Andrea Segre, 2017, 115'
An official is tasked with stemming illegal immigration from Libya but his journey has an unexpected outcome.
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