Indiegogo Project Needs Your Help to Save Italian Synagogue

When most people put up a project on Kickstarter or Indiegogo, they are trying to make their dreams come true. Whether it’s a new watch that receives text messages, a board game they made with their friends, or a movie they’ve had in their heads for the past few years. For Ghila Valabrega, though, crowdsourcing just her movie isn’t enough. She also wants to help her local community, and the world, by telling a curious part of her own family’s history.

Valabrega is from an important part of Italy, Sabbioneta, one that has enjoyed a unique history. The Jewish community was relatively safe and encouraged in this small part of Italy and managed to erect an impressive synagogue. The synagogue is now a UNESCO heritage site but faces some unique challenges: a recent earthquake has caused serious damage to the building that needs to be repaired.

Enter Valabrega, who hopes to use her moviemaking skills to profile her little part of Italy, make a movie about her family’s crazy history, and save the synagogue. A self-described realismo magico (Magic Realism) film, Valabrega’s whimsical tale already looks delightful from its trailer, which you can see right here:

I had a chance to talk with Ghila Valabrega about her film and the local synagogue, what she hopes the film will do and what this place of worship means for the worldwide Jewish community. Any and all donations can be made to her Indiegogo page here. Hurry, there isn’t much time left!

ShalomLife: What is the movie about?

Ghila Valabrega: The film in itself wants to tell two stories: one is personal, based on a real family tale; the other is to spot a light to the many Jewish-Italian communities that have been in Italy since the 1500’s.

Back in the early 1970’s, my dad, Stefano, was a young Jewish photographer always riding on his motorbike. One day, he found himself carrying out an assignment in Sabbioneta, the Idela City (1600) in northern Italy. As he was exploring the ancient city and its surroundings, he spotted the ruins of an abandoned Jewish cemetery.

Touched by the terrible state of the place, he instinctively decided to “steal” one of the tombstones and bring it back with him to Milan. He intended to preserve at least one piece of the once flourishing Jewish community of Sabbioneta. My dad did not know that by doing so he had awakened the ghost of Felice Leon Foà who, following his own tombstone, jumped on my dad’s motorbike and went back to Milan with him.

The tombstone ended up staying in our car box for over thirty long years, and so did Felice…until my mom, my sister, and I found him and decided to bring him home.

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