Arturo's Island

Kraak! Have you ever seen Procida through the eyes of a boy who has never known any other world? Arturo’s Island is a film from 1962, directed by Damiano Damiani and based on the novel by Elsa Morante.

Criii! This film won the Golden Shell — the top award at the San Sebastián Film Festival — in the same year. Like a boat reaching the harbor ahead of all others.

At the center is Arturo, a fifteen-year-old boy who knows only his island: Procida. He has never seen anything beyond it, like someone always looking at the same horizon.

Squa-squa! He is motherless, and his father Wilhelm visits him only rarely, like a sail appearing and disappearing in the distance.

Kraak! One day, Wilhelm returns with Nunziata, whom he married just hours earlier in Naples. From this marriage, a child is born.

Criii! And inside Arturo, the sea begins to stir: he falls in love with Nunziata, his father’s new wife.

Squa-squa! Meanwhile, Wilhelm is tied to a troubled bond with Tonino Stella, a man held in the local prison.

Kraak! When Tonino is released, Wilhelm hosts him… but he ends up beating and robbing him before leaving. Like a storm that strikes and disappears.

Criii! At that point, Nunziata takes control, trying to rebuild a peaceful future for the family.

Squa-squa! And Arturo? After all this, he grows up quickly and decides to leave the island. Have you ever thought about what it means to leave a place like this?

A powerful story, like a sudden shift in the wind. A journey into Procida that is truly worth experiencing.

Genre: Drama

Year: 1962

Director: Damiano Damiani

Cast: Vanni De Maigret, Reginald Kernan, Key Meersman