2004

ISLAND OF THE SLEEPING GIANTS

A Literary Journey to the Abruzzo

"Island of the Sleeping Giants" is the title of a literary journey to the Abruzzo. This "island", cut off from the other regions of central Italy not by seas but by mountains, is dominated by two peaks almost 3,000 metres high: the Gran Sasso and the Maiella. Fellini's screenwriter Ennio Flaiano, one of the authors we will meet on our journey, said: "If you think about it, these mountains are our basilicas." And indeed these barren mountains, with their harsh nature and the hard living conditions that follow from it, have shaped the thinking and actions of the people of the Abruzzo for thousands of years.

This is reflected in the literature of the region. The isolation and silence of the Abruzzo have again and again awakened in people, and of course in writers, a deep-rooted need for utopia: that ever-disappointed yet stubborn hope for a better world, a world in which a life of freedom, responsibility and self-determination will be possible. The programme paints a picture of this thousand-year-old literary landscape of the Abruzzo and, alongside a few others, gives a voice above all to the most important authors who came from here: Sallust, Ovid, Croce, D'Annunzio, Silone and Flaiano.

VOICES	Birgitta Assheuer, Marianne Lochert, Doris Wolters, Klaus Barner, Matthias Haase
MUSIC	Folk music from the Abruzzo, Synaulia, Franz Liszt, Nino Rota
DIRECTOR	Heinz Nesselrath
SOUND ENGINEER	Alfred Habelitz and Christiane Köhler
EDITOR	Gerhard Adler
DURATION	85 minutes
FIRST BROADCAST	26.9.2004 SWR2 Feature am Sonntag