Il Rosa Nudo (The Naked Rose) is a 2013
Italianfilm written and directed by
Giovanni Coda. The film was shot in
Quartu Sant'Elena and Siliqua, in
Sardinia, Italy. The Italian premiere took place during the 2013 edition of the Torino GLBT Film Festival - Da Sodoma a Hollywood.
It was selected as a special event, "for its high artistic, historical and moral value", inside the 7th edition of the
Queer Lion Award of the 70th
Venice Film Festival 2013.[1]
Plot
Il Rosa Nudo (Naked Rose) is a film inspired by the life of
Pierre Seel. The film focuses on an episode which will mark forever the existence of Seel, who was imprisoned by the Nazis at the age of seventeen: deported to the
Schirmeck concentration camp, he witnessed the atrocious death of his partner. After the war he didn't speak to anyone about the reason for his imprisonment, and eventually he married and had three children.
In 1982, outraged by the violent attacks against gays by the Bishop of Strasbourg, he decided to write his autobiography and to denounce the atrocities he suffered.
Coda's film recalls the testimony of other victims of
Nazi persecution of homosexuals and describes the pseudo-scientific experiments to which many of them were subjected by the SS physician
Carl Vaernet.[2]
Awards and Official Selections
Gold Jury Prize in the Feature Films category at the 2013 edition of Seattle Social Justice Film Festival.
Special event, "for its high artistic, historical and moral value", inside the 7th edition of the
Queer Lion Award of the 70th Venice Film Festival 2013.
Official Selection at Torino GLBT Film Festival 2013.
Official Selection at Florence Queer Festival 2013.
Official Selection at Naples Human Rights Film Festival 2013.
Official Selection at Macon Film Festival 2014. Nomination for Best Narrative Feature, Best Directing, Best Acting, Best Editing.
Official Selection at Athens International Film + Video Festival 2014, Athens, Ohio, USA.
Film For Peace Award at Gothenburg Indie Film Fest 2014, Gothenburg, Sweden.
Il Rosa Nudo: per una memoria dell'omocausto. Sulle orme di Pierre Seel. In Andrea Minuz e Guido Vitiello (Ed.), La Shoah nel cinema italiano, pp. 196–198. Soveria Mannelli: Rubbettino.
ISBN978-88-498-3871-8;
Ciak d'Oro 2014. I film italiani,
Ciak N.5, 05-05-2014, pg. 93 (Retrieved 30-06-2014);
Margherita Angelucci, Quello sterminio dimenticato. Il regista sardo Giovanni Coda all'Underground Film Festival con la pellicola Il Rosa Nudo,
Il Globo, Melbourne 08-09-2014 (Retrieved 08-09-2014);
Joey Paradox, Il Rosa Nudo (The Naked Rose), "VEXXD Art & Culture Magazine" (Retrieved 29-11-2014);
^Carl Vaernet made studies of a preparation containing hormones. His aim was to "cure homosexuality". About 80% of the prisoners forced to take part in the experiment with injections of massive doses of testosterone died.