A Sicilian epic filmed in Tunisia to bypass strict animal welfare regulations
In short: Giuseppe Tornatore’s 2009 historical drama Baarìa spans five decades of life in a Sicilian town. While it captures the dreams and political disillusionment of three generations, the film became mired in controversy over a graphic scene filmed abroad to circumvent Italian laws regarding the treatment of animals in media.
Directed by Giuseppe Tornatore, Baarìa is a sweeping chronicle of life in Bagheria, Sicily, from the 1930s to the 1980s. The narrative follows three generations of a family, beginning with Cicco, a shepherd who finds solace in literature, through his son Peppino, a communist activist, to his grandson Pietro. The film serves as a tapestry of community life, weaving together personal romances, the hardships of the Fascist era and World War II, and the eventual political disillusionment of Peppino as he confronts corruption within the Italian left.
The production process itself became a point of contention. To authentically recreate the aesthetic of early 20th-century Bagheria, Tornatore filmed in both his birthplace and an old neighborhood in Tunis, Tunisia. This choice allowed the crew to capture scenes that would have been legally impossible to film in Italy. Specifically, a scene depicting the slaughter of a cow—where the animal is struck with an iron punch and bled—sparked outrage from animal rights groups like the Lega Antivivisezione and the ENPA.
Critics argued that the production bypassed Italian laws against animal cruelty by filming in Tunisia, where such restrictions do not exist. The ENPA launched an international boycott and petitioned to have the film’s status as Italy’s entry for the 82nd Academy Awards revoked. In his defense, Tornatore stated that the scene was filmed in a local slaughterhouse during a routine killing and was not staged specifically for the movie. Despite the controversy, the film remains a significant, if divisive, portrait of Sicilian history, available in both its original Baariotu dialect and a dubbed Italian version.
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- Summary by Intellect · source: Baarìa (film)
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