The Venice film festival opened yesterday with big-budget Italian movie Baaria, a sentimental sweep through 20th-century Sicily taking in Fascism, war, Communism and the mafia.

Billed as one of Italy's most expensive movies ever, costing ?25-million ($39-million), the first homemade film to open Venice in around 20 years kicks off 11 days of screenings, photo shoots, parties and red carpet glamour on the Lido island.

Director Giuseppe Tornatore said the story of a poor family living through the... Continuar leyendo