Transformation of Space in the Adaptation of La straniera

Abstract

The article aims to examine the transformations of space in the adaptation of La straniera, the novel of the Iraqi writer Younis Tawfik, made by the Italian director Marco Turco. The importance of these two works, which have recently won the Med Agora Award, sponsored by the Mediterranean Observatory and Suq Festival, comes from an historical value, since the film La straniera is one of the first film adaptations of Italian Narrative of Migration. From a textual analysis that highlights the differences between the themes in the novel and the screenplay, the article passes to the transformations of space, with the purpose of illustrating a series of reports linking the spatial coordinates with their geo-cultural values. The textual analysis leads also to consider the gap between the intercultural project of Tawfik and multicultural one of Turco. In conclusion, the article demonstrates, through an “the image of Italy” provided by the Iraqi author and the Italian director, how the spatial transformation may give rise to new interpretations of space, impacting on the original message of the literary text.