Rosalia Polizzi ‘tra’ e ‘in’ due mondi: lo spazio diasporico in "Anni ribelli"

Abstract

This essay analyses the film "Anni Ribelli" (1994) by Rosalia Polizzi, which focuses on the story of a female migrant coming of age in the cosmopolitan Buenos Aires of 1955, at the end of the Perón regime. The bilingual Italian-Argentine co-production raises questions on the transnational reception of the historical and partially autobiographical narrative by local audiences in both countries. Moreover, when placed within the boundaries of national cinematic production of the 1990s, the film can also be compared with the ‘new migrant’ cinema in Italy. This essay suggests that in Anni Ribelli, transnationalism is conceived of as a gendered ‘diaspora space’ in which the transcultural coming of age of a Sicilian second generation migrant in Buenos Aires questions both the myths of cosmopolitanism and Peronism. It analyses director Polizzi’s gaze in the light of the fact that she is a second generation migrant who defines herself as a ‘return migrant’.