Documentary 'Cartas de Calvino' explores Italo Calvino's Cuban roots

A new documentary film, 'Cartas de Calvino,' directed by Esther Barroso Sosa, investigates the deep connection between celebrated Italian writer Italo Calvino and Cuba, his birthplace. The film follows Italo-Cuban singer and composer Monica Marziota, who receives mysterious letters seemingly from Calvino himself, prompting her to explore his ties to Santiago de las Vegas, where he was born in 1923. Shot across Rome, Sanremo, and Havana, the documentary traces Calvino's biography from his birth to his return to Cuba in 1964 for a Casa de las Americas invitation and his marriage to Esther Judith Singer there. Cuba continues to honor him with a plaque at his birthplace in the Botanical Garden of Santiago de las Vegas and a prestigious literary prize named after him. The film premieres in Italy on November 23, 2024, at the Casa del Cinema in Rome as part of the Scoprir XII Ibero-American Cinema Festival, with a subsequent screening on November 26 at the Cinema Rouge et Noir in Palermo, attended by the director, protagonist, and cast.