SECRET FILE (SEGRETI DI STATO)

Italy, 2003, 85 minutes, Colour.
Antonio Catania, David Coco, Aldo Pugliesi.
Directed by Paolo Benvenuti.

Secret File is a reconstruction of the investigations into a massacre in Sicily in 1947. On 1 May 1947 in Portella della Ginestra the crowd was fired on with eleven dead and twenty-seven (officially) wounded. The investigators laid the blame at the Sicilian bandit Salvatore Giuliano (the subject of a film during the 60s as well as Michael Cimino's The Sicilian).

The film takes place from 1951 to 1954 when there was serious investigation into the massacre. What emerges is a conspiracy, an anti-communist move by Sicilian politicians and noblemen, the government in Rome (with the alleged complicity of church people). There are also links made with the CIA and American influences. What also emerges is that there was a concerted plan, decoys, Giuliano ordered to fire above the people, other people (with the help of the Mafia) who were to fire into the crowd. It was geared for elections and also as a piece of anti-communist propaganda.

The film is meticulous in its presentation of the investigation, not so much action on-screen as reconstruction by drawing, by a model of the location, by discussion. The evidence is put before the audience.

The film comes from a more leftist perspective. It is very critical of the government of the time, of church members (including Pius XII and the later Paul VI) as well as the Americans, including President Truman. There is a scene where photo cards linking all these people are presented on a table - but then the wind blows a window open and they are scattered. The difficulty with this kind of conspiracy theory is that it goes too far and implicates people in authority who have very little connection, no direct connection with the events that happened. When it is on safer ground, looking at the Italian situation, the film is of great interest for Italians - and a model for how a film might be made for any nation trying to investigate secret files, cover-ups, conspiracies.

1. The impact of the film for an Italian audience? Overseas audience? A knowledge of Italy, politics, anti-communism of the 1940s? The aftermath of World War II? The nature of Sicily, politicians, the Mafia? The police and collusion with government and Mafia? The potential for cover-ups and conspiracies? Conspiracy theories? The role of Salvatore Giuliano and his gang, violent, anti-communist, being used by anti-communist government forces?

2. The Sicilian locations, a sense of reality about what happened? The use of the model for understanding the strategies and the events? The contrast with Viterbo, the prisons, the courts? The artificiality of the court sequences contrasting with the realism of the events?

3. The structure of the film: the prison in 1951, the interrogations, the court hearings? The geographical presentation of the massacre, the lawyer and his investigations, his visiting the place? The passing of the years, the building of the model, the discoveries through the geography, through the sun? The evidence from the calibre of the bullets? Testimony from other prisoners, confessions, documentation? The conclusion and the filing of all this material as a state secret?

4. The lawyer, his interviews, his discussions with the expert and the building of the model of the area, the discussion about the bullets? The interview with Giuliano's henchman? The other members of the gang? His presence in the court, listening to the evidence, his speculations, drawing his own conclusions? The finale with his explanation of what had happened, the various signals, the shooting, the victims, the escape of the hunters? The orchestrated happening - anti-communist?

5. The opening, the judge, his watching the film, his orders that Giuliano's henchman be killed? The warning from the man in the laundry? His going to the lawyer to explain things? The legal tangles - and unless he pleaded guilty he could not give testimony? His naming names? His survival in the prison? The other prisoner, his interrogations? The planning of the murder by poisoning the prisoner, his death?

6. The judges, the hearings in the court, the protection of the politicians, the nature of the law, his findings and the proclamation of those who are innocent and the filing?

7. The model, the geography, the role of Giuliano and his men, the employing of the other men by the Mafia, their doing the actual killing? The abduction of the politician, the police and their arranging his capture, the signal that he had been captured - as a signal for the massacre itself? The hunters and their role? The shooting of Giuliano?

8. The possibilities for this kind of government conspiracy, the communist professor, his explanations of the background, his cards with all the faces, the reaching right up to the head of government, the Pope, President Truman? The wind blowing the cards off the table?

9. The history of the latter part of the 20th century, the influence of the CIA, the coups, the possibility of this kind of massacre and cover-up?