Waldensian Day 2017
It was a lovely day in the beautiful setting of Wesley Church , Cambridge . Unfortunately , the speaker from Italy was in poor health and I ended up doing more or less everything … which on the whole worked all right .
The 1924 silent film Waldensians was a good introduction to the story of my father ( From Sicily to the Waldensian Valleys : the remarkable life of Filippo Scroppo ( 1910 – 1993 ), artist , critic , cultural organiser , teacher , preacher and third generation Protestant ) and his family .
From the Waldensian film : Peter Waldo teaching .
Faithful for Centuries
The film was the idea of a Waldensian film director from Turin ( where the film industry was born !), Nino Martinengo , embraced with enthusiasm by pastor Paolo Bosio , a very active organiser involved with foreign missions such as ours , and a few other people . The script – about 800 years of Waldensian history – was supervised by Ernesto Comba , Professor of Church History at the Faculty of Theology in Rome and judged of good quality for the purpose . Thanks to the previous activities of the director and his connections , the film crew managed to access unbelievable places , such as the studios of Cinecittà in Rome and even the Vatican ( since he had shot a documentary on the Pope and still had his passes , and the Guards knew him anyway ). The actors were professional and the only places true to life were the Waldensian Valleys , with extras provided by the Waldensian Youth Clubs and dramatic shots in Massello , Prali , Bobbio , Rorà , Angrogna . Normal people from everyday life were also filmed in the many churches in the Valleys and all around Italy , the south and Sicily included , that they visited in order to portray life in the twentieth century . Unfortunately , Mussolini ( in power since 1922 ) was preparing the Concordate ( the 1929 Pact with the Roman Catholic Church that gave the State to the Fascist regime in exchange for all Church business being confined to the Vatican ) and changing the Statuto Albertino in order to abolish the freedom of the press , and much more . The ‘ Giacomo Matteotti Affair ’ – the MP disappeared after a speech against the violence and illegalities during the elections of 1924 ( to be the last until 1946 !) – had made everything more difficult . Little by little the film was hindered , restricted to members of the Waldensian church and then banned . It was never officially launched as Bosio had hoped , and it eventually became just a means for clandestine publicity and fund raising abroad ! It was even given a secret name : Phoebe !
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