A tribute to the great Italian director on the occasion of the XVII Settimana della lingua Italiana nel mondo, that has as main theme "L’italiano al cinema, l’italiano nel cinema".

It is difficult to categorize Zurlini, as he is a quite controversial artist. Critics have never adequately acknowledged his talent, not even after his premature death. Nevertheless, only few other Italian directors have been able to analyze the human feelings, the violent passions that affect us and eventually destroy us, the relationship between individuals and history, the conformity between characters’ psychology and the environment in which they live.
Jean Gili, who spent a great deal of time analyzing the Emilian director’s poetics, declared that “together with Antonioni, Zurlini is a great director of the mood landscapes” and that “he belongs to a lost generation, by now solitary and far from a world where there is no quality anymore. He is tormented by contradictions that push him both towards romanticism and towards self-destruction”.

The retrospective means to retrace the whole career of Zurlini, from his first documentaries dating back to the 50s to his most famous movies, up to the three-times awarded "The Desert of the Tartars".