Come un granello di sabbia – At the age of eighteen, Giuseppe Gulotta underwent a harrowing ordeal, being subjected to torture and coerced into confessing to the murder of two carabinieri in a small barracks in Alcamo. This heinous crime conceals an unspeakable mystery, involving statesmen entangled with neo-fascist groups, arms, and drug trafficking. Any convenient scapegoat would suffice to veil the truth behind this atrocity.

Through the lens of Giuseppe’s personal narrative, as well as those of Salvatore and Carmine – the two victims of the massacre – and others like Giovanni, Vincenzo, and Gaetano, who were wrongly designated as scapegoats, the play endeavors to render justice to lives completely stolen for reasons too dark to articulate.

Giuseppe’s voice serves as a conduit, drawing us into the whirlwind of his experience, recounting his curtailed youth, his arrest, the brutal torture endured, the prolonged imprisonment, and yet, amidst the despair, his indomitable and unwavering hope for the ultimate restoration of his humble yet noble identity.

The performance is the last chapter of the quadrilogy A Sud della Memoria that Mana Chuma has devoted to the contemporary history of Southern Italy.