1,200 people attended three screenings in Carbonia for “Stelle nel pozzo,” a short film about the 1989 murder of 16-year-old Gisella Orrù, [unionesarda.it] reported.
Director Paolo Carboni set the drama in a post-industrial city struggling with the closure of local mines.
The project drew a double sold-out crowd for two screenings on Monday in Cagliari at the Odissea cinema. The cultural association Babel organized those showings as part of the Nosu e is Atrus festival, according to [unionesarda.it].
Orrù was killed and thrown into a well in San Giovanni Suergiu in 1989. The judicial case resulted in convictions, but circumstances were never fully clarified, [unionesarda.it] reported. Doubts persist due to the suicide in prison of one convicted person and the disappearance of a second after his release.
The film sidesteps straightforward true-crime reporting to focus on the social fabric of Sardinia in the late 1980s. Carbonia suffered from high unemployment, urban decay, and a deep sense of isolation following the mining crisis.
Fiction elements follow two 16-year-olds, Caterina and Cinzia, played by Elisa Luciano and Manuela Cambuli. Both share a passion for volleyball and a strong friendship, [unionesarda.it] reported. Caterina hides family hardships caused by the mining collapse behind a tough exterior.
Both characters want to escape provincial life. Their attempts to find a different future draw them into dangerous situations with adults, leading to the final tragedy described by [unionesarda.it].