Cinecittà Dossier

dossier

13/9/2006

Martinelli : "Our civilisation mustn't show signs of weakness "

[by Michela Greco]

"He lives like us. He talks like us. But he hates us". This is the tagline on the poster for the film The Stone Merchant by Renzo Martinelli, and the person in question is an Islamic terrorist who hides among ordinary people, using them as camouflage.

Having tackled subjects like the Resistance with Porzus, the disaster of Vajont and the Moro case in Five Moons Plaza, Renzo Martinelli has now put the theme of Islamic terrorism in his sights.

The film is about the university professor Alceo, who teaches "History of Terrorism" (Jordi Mollà ), who has become obsessed with the ranger from Islam when he lost both his legs in the attack on the American embassy in Nairobi. His wife Leda (Jane March) meets the "stone merchant" (Harvey Keitel), a cultured and refined westerner who sells precious gems, in Turkey. She falls in love with him but what she doesn't know is that he is a terrorist, and a member of an Al Qaeda cell, led by Sahid (played by F. Murray Abraham), whose mission is to explode a radioactive bomb on a ferry between Calais and Dover. He plans for her to be the mule who unwittingly carries the bomb, though the stone merchant will come to repent his decision because of his love for her.

Martinelli told the mediia: "Politically collaborative Europe will pay for its mistakes. Our civilisation mustn't show signs of weakness".

 

The film is co-produced by Renzo Martinelli with Britains Creative Partners and Box Film Productions, It will be out in on 220 screens cinemas from September 15, distributed by Medusa. 

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