Cinema
Don't Torture a Duckling
Non si sevizia un paperino
Lucio Fulci · 1972
Synopsis
Accendura, a village in Basilicata. Local boys torment the village idiot, Giuseppe, while a recluse, la Maciara, practises black magic. When one of the boys, Bruno, disappears, journalists flock in, among them Andrea Martelli; the village also looks with suspicion on Patrizia, a rich young woman who lives there as if in exile. Other children are killed, and suspicion passes from one inhabitant to another.
Context
Roberto Gianviti and Gianfranco Clerici wrote the screenplay with the director. The film was shot in Basilicata, where the action is set, and in Apulia; the cinematography is by Sergio D'Offizi, the music by Riz Ortolani, with the voice of Ornella Vanoni. Tomas Milian, Barbara Bouchet and Florinda Bolkan play the leading roles. Its criticism of the Catholic Church at first limited its distribution in Europe, and it was not released in France until 1978, under a title that speaks of exorcism and does not translate the Italian title.
Who it is for
More than an hour and a half, in Italian. A rural giallo, a detective puzzle as much as a portrait of a village given over to superstition.
Prizes and reception
Fulci regarded it as his best film and said so again in 1994; critics count it among his most accomplished works.
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