U.S. Premiére
16th Sonoma International Film Festival
April 11th 2013 h. 3:15 pm – April 14th h.12:00 pm at Vintage House – Sonoma
World Premiére in Venice
Collateral Event of 13th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia
September 5th 2012 ore 8:30 pm
Film excerpts from “Zucco. The wine of the son of the King of the French”
a documentary film by Lidia Rizzo
a BLUE FILM production
in collaboration with SICILIA FILM COMMISSION
produced by BRUNO TRIBBIOLI and ALESSANDRO BONIFAZI
cinematography ORAZIO CRISTALDI and ANTONIO COVATO
music RUDY GNUTTI
editor VALERIA BICLUNGO
What brought the richest man of the late 18th century to die in a province in the depths of southern Italy? A grand estate, a wine: Zucco.
The Duke of Aumale was the son of Louis Philippe, the first bourgeois King, known as the King of the French. He was exiled from his beloved France and in Sicily found a land where he could apply the ‘agricultural’ precepts of Virgil, an author loved by his childhood educator Cuvilliere-Fleury, correspondence with whom lasted throughout his life and bear witness to his love of books, art and wine.
Zucco’s wines became famous for their purity compared to the Maderas which used to be drunk at that time. They were produced by the Duke in an avant-garde winery which provided work for the majority of the population of Montelepre. Those wines are no longer produced today but they have left indelible memories between Chantilly Castle in France and the Fiefdom of Zucco in the Province of Palermo.
Pietro has inherited a part of the Zucco estate from his father where he grew up listening to legends about the Duke told by the old field-workers. Pietro produces organic citrus fruit, but one day he hears a voice…the call of the Zucco wine which surpasses time and will perhaps change his life…