Wolf Gaudlitz is honorary citizen of Palermo

The Mayor Leoluca Orlando has conferred this morning at the Teatro Massimo, honorary citizenship to the German actor and director Wolf Gaudlitz. The Superintendent of the Teatro Massimo Foundation, Francesco Giambrone was present as well.

The Mayor “expressing esteem and admiration for his sensitive art and attentive to the reality of the City, determines to confer the honorary citizenship of the City of Palermo to Wolf Gaudlitz”.

The motivations:

“For his art expressed as an author, director, producer, photographer who took him around the world documenting with his different and varied works seen from an original point of view.

For the deep-rooted bond with Sicily, land that inspires him in many works.

For his deep love for Palermo, favorite scenario of many cinematographic works, among which Ballata Ballarò, L’Opera o la musica si fa nel silenzio, Il Padre di Nardino, I giorni contati, Palermo non grida Palermo sussurra.

For having described with his productions the difficult years experienced by the City, described as stuck in an eternal present, crushed between a heavy past and a future full of uncertainty, to which we try to return the dimension of time, a City that previously shouted of pain and was silent for fear but that today whispers, a city in which the forgotten sweetness of the Sicilian soul is still alive.

For his being a culture traveler, who sees in the film the movement, the filmography as an instrument of knowledge of reality, which simultaneously allows to dream and build a future of welcoming and intellectual and human exchanges between Mitteleuropa and the Mediterranean, having Palermo to center”.

“And the recognition – declared the Mayor – to a more than thirty years attention by Wolf Gaudlitz to the reality of Palermo. An expressive attention, with love for the city and with great artistic sensitivity, through a series of highly successful film productions – some of which have been awarded in Germany as best German film of the year – dedicated to cultural change in Palermo. Being here today at the Teatro Massimo and attending the screening of the film “Opera” is a way to remember the time, described with all the sweetness but also the bitterness of love, the closure of the Maximum for long years. Now that the theater is reopened, to see that film is also to further confirm the cultural change of this city “.

“I am a visionary,” said Wolf Gaudlitz, “I make films and I’m positive, I’m honored and proud of this recognition, three of my sons call me dad and they love Palermo”.