Erri De Luca: places truly return only through writing

For Erri De Luca, returning does not simply mean reaching a place again: geography changes, while writing can restore people and landscapes to their original shape. He reflected on this at the Rome Film Festival while presenting Audrey Gordon’s I pesci non chiudono gli occhi, inspired by his book and partly filmed on Ischia, where he spent childhood summers. Photographs, Super 8 footage and reconstructed scenes trace the passage from childhood to adulthood, linking private memory, social justice and the birth of a literary vocation. The cast includes newcomers Agostino Ceparano and Chiara D’Angelo. De Luca also recalled Non ora, non qui, his 1989 debut, as another point where biography and storytelling began to recognise one another and transform lived places into literature.