CM 2022

Film Commission Torino Piemonte / Regione Piemonte - Piemonte Film TV Developmend Fund

MIC (Italian Ministry of Culture) - Development Fund

MIC (Italian Ministry of Culture) - Internal Tax Credit (automatic)

La Sarraz Pictures - direct investment

Prince Aden

Il Principe Aden

CineMart 2022 - Prince Aden

Goals at CineMart Prince Aden easily lends itself to being an international co-production: the film has locations outside of Italy and 
some of the locations will be reconstructions; in addition, 
the script includes several roles that must be assigned 
to non-Italian actors (or who do not speak it as their first 
language). La Sarraz Pictures is used to working in a 
co-production regime, so we are aware of the needs. For this 
reason, we plan to insert non-Italian heads of department and 
do the post-production outside Italy. We are not looking for 
partners in specific countries, but we think that the film, from 
a narrative point of view, may be of interest to those countries 
with a known colonial past and/or with a particularly active 
role during the Second World War. To name a few: France, 
Belgium, the Netherlands...Synopsis 1935. 16-year-old Somali Aden Scir&egrave; manages to pass the test to become a dubat, a soldier in the fascist army, and thus become Italian and escape his destiny as a shepherd. He makes friends with 
another Somali boy, Mohamed Ragh&egrave;, who teaches him his first words of Italian, but his dream ends 
on his first day of service: sent as a sentry to Ual Ual, on the border with Ethiopia, his knee is wounded 
during an attack by the Ethiopian army and he is forced to return home. For the fascist regime he 
becomes "the hero of Ual Ual", wounded on the front.
1940. Aden has taught himself own and finally has the opportunity to make his dream come true: the 
Fascist Regime is looking for young people from the colonies to participate in a recreation of the daily 
life of an African village that has been built in the new Mostra d'Oltremare exhibition centre in Naples.
Aden now speaks Italian and in addition is "the hero of Ual Ual": he is chosen immediately. Among 
the guards in Naples he finds his friend Mohamed. But after a few months, Italy enters the war and 
the "human zoo" closes. Despite their constant requests for repatriation, the Africans are left there in 
precarious living conditions under the allies' terrifying bombs for almost three years, unable to leave due 
to the racial laws. As a war hero, Aden has more privileges, and for this reason is elected spokesman, 
but his attempts to contact the offices of the Ministry of Colonies come to nothing. Some die of pleurisy, 
some from the cold, others become seriously ill. Eventually they are picked up one night and transferred 
to Treia, a small town in the Marche region, in a sort of political exile.
1943. They continue to live in prison in Treia but have more contact with the outside world, and learn 
of thousands of partisans who are organizing themselves in the mountains to free the region from the 
Nazi-fascists. Along with his other African comrades, including Mohamed and an Ethiopian woman 
named Menen with whom he falls in love, Aden finally realises that he has been the victim of a great 
deception, and after the enactment of the Armistice of Cassibile on the 8th of September 1943 escapes 
and joins the Banda Mario, made up of partisans from all over Europe and led by the charismatic Mario 
Depangher.
The recognised leader of his group, Aden is now known to all as "Prince Aden". Under his leadership, 
the Africans play a decisive role in the partisan struggle, and some are killed by the Nazi-fascists. Aden 
witnesses the death of his friend Mohamed, and his pain turns into merciless anger until liberation is 
achieved.
1973. After becoming Minister of Grace and Justice in Somalia, Aden is arrested by the dictator Siad 
Barre and becomes seriously ill in prison. He is permitted to travel to Rome for treatment but dies once 
he arrives in the Italian capital, the city of which that young shepherd had once dreamed.Director's Biography Gianluca and Massimiliano De Serio are twin brothers, born in Turin in 1978. They have been working together since 
1999, and over the years have made films, documentaries 
and installations, participating in national and international 
exhibitions and film festivals, and winning numerous awards. 
Since 2006, they have been working with the production 
company La Sarraz Pictures. Xhodi&rsquo;s Exams (2007) won the 
Special Jury Prize at the Turin Film Festival, and participated 
in the Cin&eacute;ma du R&eacute;el in Paris, the Montevideo Film Festival 
and the Rome Film Festival, among others. With Bakroman
(2009), they won the Best Italian Documentary Award at the 
Turin Film Festival. In August 2011, Seven Acts of Mercy, their 
first feature film for cinema, made its debut in competition at 
Locarno, winning the Don Quixote Prize and the second prize 
of the Young Jury. In September 2015, they presented their 
second work at the Venice Film Festival, the documentary 
River Memories, which was then selected in competition at 
the prestigious Swiss festival Visions du r&eacute;el in Nyon, and 
released in Italian cinemas in 2016. Their latest work, Una 
Promessa, was presented in competition &ndash; the only Italian 
production &ndash; at Venice Days 2020.

La Sarraz Pictures

The astonishing human parable of young Somali Aden Scirè, from fascist war hero to partisan liberation fighter. A story about Italian fascism and colonialism from an unprecedented and explosive point of view, seen through the eyes of a shepherd who became a 'prince'.

Massimiliano De Serio

Gianluca De Serio