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!
2