Remembering Sara Tafuri: A Shattered Dream in Italian Cinema

Actress of Catanzaro origins, Sara Tafuri, has died at the age of 67. The woman had acted in 1980 with Federico Fellini in 'The City of Women'. The following year she was one of the performers in 'Three Brothers', by Francesco Rosi, awarded with the David di Donatello. However, her career was interrupted in 1986 due to a car accident. Paola Gassman dead, the memory of brother Alessandro Gassmann: 'You have always been the wisest of us all'. Rosaria Tafuri, known as Sara Tafuri was born in Catanzaro, took her first steps in cinema attending the acting school of Antonio Panzarella, and then landed in Cinecittà, where she met Fellini, who offered her the role alongside Marcello Mastroianni in 1980 in the film 'The City of Women'. Subsequently, she also obtained a role in the film 'Three Brothers' by Francesco Rosi along with Philippe Noiret, Michele Placido, and Vittorio Mezzogiorno. Success led her to television shows like 'Gran Canal' and in 1983 she was the protagonist in the Rai film 'Bebawi', inspired by the murder of the 'sweet life' of Viale Lazio in Rome in 1964. On June 18, 1986, Sara Tafuri was involved in a terrible accident in Catanzaro, risking her life. Following this tragic event, the woman always disappeared from the radar, worrying more and more about her family life. Nicola Fiorita, mayor of Catanzaro, wanted to remember Sara Tafuri with these words: 'She was beautiful, talented, full of life, destined for a great career in the world of entertainment. A beautiful family hers. Her father a famous pastry chef in the historic center. A vocation for acting cultivated from a young age. Fellini had wanted her in his 'The City of Women', even if her most intense role was that of 'Bebawi', in the homonymous television film. Hers was a dream shattered by a terrible accident. She faced the long years of illness and disability with exemplary courage. We will try to keep her memory alive. I will ask the director of the Magna Graecia Film Festival, Gianvito Casadonte, to screen 'Bebawi' on the occasion of the next edition of the event and to award a prize, named after Sara, to the most promising young actress.