(AGENPARL) – Rome, 1 September 2024
English: “After eight consecutive years in which the Venice Film Festival has always held a “Focus China” session, this year, inexplicably, the organizers have decided to interrupt this flourishing tradition, thus creating a discontinuity in the cultural exchange relations between these two countries. In the Focus China our artists, directors, actors and producers could not only maintain cooperative relations with their Chinese counterparts to explore opportunities for film co-production, but also stimulate tourism from China to our country. When the Meloni Government decided to exit the Silk Road, we of the Independence movement immediately feared that this would lead to a cooling of trade relations between our two countries but we believed that at least cultural cooperation would continue anyway. And instead, despite Meloni’s recent trip to Beijing, it seems that everything is being done to ensure that the break between Italy and China is total, even in those fields, such as visual arts and culture, where Italy has an immense advantage over our Western competitors. Another gesture against the interests of Italy and Italians and in favor of other countries that occupy the spaces left empty by us.” This is what Gianni Alemanno and Michele Geraci, secretary and head of Foreign Affairs of the Independence Movement, declared.