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Dear Hans Jürgen,
This is Fabio Parente writing from Rome, upon suggestion of Enrico Ghezzi.
I am writing you because we are preparing a film in co-production with the spanish producer Luis Minarro (producer of De Oliveira, Lisando Alonso, Apichatpong Weerasethakul and many others) inspired to the last days of Walter Benjamin and we all would love to have you in the film for a small but important role.
In fact we would like you to play the role of the Major of Banyuls-sur Mer, Azèma, who helped Walter Benjamin and his guide Lisa Fittko to escape from the occupied France toward the Spain.
It is a just one scene that has been accounted by Lisa Fittko in her book of memories “Escape Through the Pyrenees”.
The director of the film is Fabrizio Ferraro. You probably met him several years ago during Enrico's festival "Il vento del cinema". Enrico has a great respect for him and he often program his films at Fuori Orario.
Fabrizio is also an esteemed friend of Jean-Marie Straub.
Your commitment would therefore be only for one day of shooting in Banyuls-sur mer, on the border between France and Spain, beginning of March.
The film is entitled “Les indesiderables. Europe!” and we are involving in the project some of the people we love for their work of resistance as artists, in a political sense.
This is the reason why we would love to have you playing the role of an antifascist major who helpes a bunch of antifascist refugees (German Jews) to escape from the fascist persecution in France.
Telling this story now is for us also a strong political statement since we feel that the crisis of the democratic Europe in 1939/1940 has something in common with the Europe today.
We would be very pleased then if you would like to stay with us some days in the first week of march in Banyuls-sur Mer.
We will be housed at the “9 caves”, a wine company in Banyuls that produces natural wines with a strong ethical attitude. There will be then great food and wine.
I hope therefore you can have the possibility and the pleasure to be with us in this project.
I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Warm regards,
Fabio Parente
