Désir et rébellion, L'art de la joie - Goliarda Sapienza

In 1976 Goliarda Sapienza, an unknown Sicilian writer, finishes an 800-page novel, L’arte della gioia. It’s the story of a life, Modesta’s life, born on 1st January 1900 on a slope of the vulcano Etna from a poor family whom she tries to emancipate herself from throughout her life, transgressing every law to realize her desires. For twenty years the author has suffered rejections from all Italian publishing houses. The story of her sensual heroine, told capturing her fight against fascism and patriarchy, still doesn’t get an audience in 1980s Italy, and Goliarda Sapienza dies of a heart attack in 1996, having never seen her novel published.

This documentary by Coralie Martin offers us an unprecedented encounter with Goliarda Sapienza and her rebellious heroine Modesta, to reveal the revolutionary, subversive and even scandalous charge of this essential literature masterpiece of the 20th century. The trajectories of these two desiring women intertwine heading to the same emancipatory power: the joy of writing about their own life.

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