Dardanelles is the result of an 11-year research on the Pietro di Donato archive at Stony Brook University. The research to produce this film was documented in "Six Objects: Notes Towards a Film on Pietro di Donato"
Dardanelles (ITA 2012, 57', English Subtitles) Directed, Filmed and Edited by Elia Moutamid. Written by Simone Brioni. Second Camera: Valerio Ciriaci, Francesco Galaverni, Isaak Liptzin. Visual effects: Giorgio Poloni. Produced by Graziano Chiscuzzu. Soundtrack: Piernicola di Muro. Sound Design: . Production: 5e6. Distribution: OpenDDB
Logline
Journeying across countries, languages, and histories, a Moroccan Italian filmmaker follows traces of the life of Pietro Di Donato—bricklayer and famed author of Christ in Concrete (1939)—to rethink what it means to belong. As we move between New York and Italy, Dardanelles weaves archives, art, and interviews into a poetic exploration of migration as a threshold, where memory and identity are shaped not by roots alone, but also by class, migration and the many crossings of narratives shared through multiple generations.
Synopsis
Raised in Italy on Hollywood myths of America, Elia travels to New York to visit a friend and stumbles into an unexpected journey. On Long Island, he meets Loredana, who is tracing the life of Pietro Di Donato—bricklayer and author of the landmark Italian American novel Christ in Concrete (1939). Through archives, interviews, paintings, and personal encounters, Di Donato’s story unfolds alongside those of his contemporary migrant-workers and the present-day descendants of Italian American laborers. Moving between New York and Italy, the film explores migration as a condition of living between worlds rather than a one-way journey. Di Donato’s life—marked by class struggle, political dissent, and an ultimately unfulfilled desire to return to his parents’ homeland—becomes a mirror for Elia, Loredana, and others navigating citizenship, memory, and belonging today. Named after the Dardanelles Strait, a historic and mythologized passage between continents, the documentary reflects on thresholds: between nations, generations, labor and art. It asks what is lost when identities become fixed, and what becomes possible when stories cross borders to reshape shared histories.
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