Back in 1904 a poor young man by the name of Agostino Coppola left his Southern Italian hometown of Bernalda for good. Starting from this small village near Matera, in the Basilicata region, he went on to cross the Atlantic and to seek fortune in America. Today, a century later, Agostino's descendants constitute one of the most influential families ever in the film industry, thus bringing their ancestor's journey to completion, having conquered the United States thanks to art.

This is the story reconstructed by the Bernaldese actor Michele Russo in his recent documentary The Family Whistle. Mr. Russo, who also starred in The Godfather Part III and in Giuseppe Tornatore's Baarìa, is a distant cousin to the famed director Francis Ford Coppola.

Read more

Fonte: L'italo-Americano