The director Haile Gerima will be among the guests at the 67th Festival dei Popoli to present Black Lions, Roman Wolves, a monumental work on Ethiopian resistance during the second Italian invasion of 1935: thirty years of work for an epoch-making film lasting nine hours.

Divided into five parts and composed of archive footage, historical documents, folklore, war songs, traditional celebratory poems and testimonies, Black Lions, Roman Wolves is the masterpiece of a director who has always been committed to chronicling the strenuous struggle of the Ethiopian people and its symbolic value of resistance against all colonial injustices and violence with which African history is tragically permeated. Mixing archival material, interviews with eyewitnesses and historians, original footage shot by the director and scenes taken from the theatrical works of his father, Ato Tafere Gerima, the film builds a choral and multilingual narrative of a war fought not only with weapons but with the very power of culture, memory and the spoken word, through the indelible memories of warriors, poetry, music and oral tradition, thereby overturning a narrative long dominated by Italian and Western accounts.

In the director's words: "Black Lions, Roman Wolves is a thirty-year obsession that has transformed my very idea of storytelling. It is a story of memory, or rather, of my right to remember an event completely dominated by European narratives; a power that possesses not only the resources, but also the right of absolute ownership over the archives of this specific historical event concerning the repeated Italian attempt to colonise my country, Ethiopia. In dealing with this immense historical legacy, a large part of the past decades has been spent acquiring the rights to the archive footage representing my very people, both those who fought the invaders and those who collaborated with the Italian fascist invasion. I asked myself: how can an African director use images manufactured by a colonial and racist mentality? And how to avoid the traps and dangers of using an archive that considered my people barbarian? I completed the film despite being denied access to the main archive of the Mussolini era, Istituto Luce, based in Rome, as well as those of superpowers like Great Britain. For me, it was never enough to make a film just to tell a story. I have spent my life fighting, ever since I understood the power of cinema to empower my narrative logic, my system of thought. I hope that the effort of this film, however imperfect, allows viewers—rather than denying it to them—to reflect on the ideas that brought it to life."

Black Lions, Roman Wolves is an act of memory that asserts how the past has not yet finished speaking: a monument to African resistance, collective authorship and the spirit of a nation that refused to kneel before unjust power. 

Haile Gerima will be in Florence during the 67th Festival dei Popoli on Monday 2nd and Tuesday 3th November to present the film and meet the audience.

The initiative is part of the project “Se l’ascia dimentica, l’albero ricorda” የወጋ ቢረሳ፤ የተወጋ አይረሳ (Haile Gerima on tour in Italy) - a journey spanning various cities and a wide range of institutions, including film festivals, universities, cultural and film organizations, and associations. By fostering synergies among diverse stakeholders, the project establishes a nationwide, widespread platform for in-depth exploration and debate.