Antonio Serrafiore – April 14, 2026
MONTREAL – A land shaped by migration, Canada now has more than 41 million inhabitants, a large proportion of whom come from immigrant backgrounds. Over generations, these communities have integrated into North American society without ever breaking the invisible thread that connects them to their origins.
In Montreal, the community originating from Joppolo Giancaxio vividly embodies this living memory. Largely stemming from the first major postwar wave of migration, it has succeeded in recreating, thousands of kilometers from Sicily, a piece of its native village. In the 1970s, the Quebec metropolis even had more people from Joppolo than any other place outside Joppolo itself.
This connection across the two sides of the Atlantic led to the creation of the Joppolo Association of Montreal, which remains a pillar of the community today.
In this context, a universal question emerges: what does it mean to leave one’s country? Between the perspective of those who depart, driven by hopes of a better future, and that of those who stay, sustained by the expectation of renewal, an intimate and collective tension takes shape.
From this reflection came Il Paese: The Village, a documentary by Montreal filmmaker Shelley Tepperman. Inspired by the story of the Lo Dico family, the film has been selected for the 44th edition of the Rendez-vous Québec Cinéma, the main festival dedicated to Quebec cinema, taking place from April 22 to 30, 2026, in Montreal. Filmed in Italian and Sicilian dialect, it will premiere on Monday, April 27 at 8:30 p.m. at Cinéma du Musée, with French subtitles.



Francesca Lo Dico: A Collective Story Between Two Worlds
At the heart of the project is the personal experience of Francesca Lo Dico, a second-generation immigrant well known in Montreal, notably through the her family flower shop, Fleuriste San Remo.
The film is rooted in a return-to-roots trip organized in 2019 by the Joppolo Association, during which over thirty community members visited Sicily together 50 years after they left to remake their lives. “It was important to make this trip together,” Francesca says. The documentary tells “the story of me, my mother, and my father, but it also opens up to all those who took part in the trip, and to everyone who had to leave Joppolo.”
Between Sicily and Canada, Francesca says she grew up “split between two worlds,” with Sicilian dialect as her mother tongue—a duality that runs throughout the film.
The central concept is spartenza, a Sicilian term that goes beyond the idea of departure to evoke separation, even uprooting. “Today, technology allows us to stay in touch, but in the past, the distance was total,” she recalls, referring to the economic hardships of the postwar period.
The documentary thus weaves a dialogue between the personal and the collective, oscillating between nostalgia and a celebration of family bonds that withstand time and distance. It becomes a space where memory is reconstructed and identity resides at the intersection of past and present.
Narratively, the work departs from conventional forms. “It’s closer to a poem,” Francesca explains. “Voices are central. We’re aiming for emotional immersion rather than a linear story,” almost an “anthropological and ethnographic” approach.



A Village Between Departure and Resistance
As for the future of Joppolo, Francesca remains clear-eyed without giving up hope: “Many young people leave due to a lack of work. But those who stay try are trying to build something.”
Each summer, the village comes back to life through its traditions—the August Fair, the yellow melon festival, religious processions—while also relying on tourism and the visits of the emigrati, those who left.The Via Francigena, which crosses the region and connects Palermo to Agrigento, also attracts pilgrims.
Like many Sicilian villages, its future remains uncertain. But one thing endures: “the desire to resist and reinvent itself.” And perhaps, she suggests, this film will help keep that memory alive.



Shelley Tepperman: Filming Between Observation and Memory
For Shelley Tepperman, this project is part of a long-standing exploration of migration and cultural identity. Her interest in communities of Italian origin dates back to childhood: “I grew up in a neighborhood where many of my friends were children of southern Italian immigrants,” she recalls.
The turning point came in 2019, when she joined the trip to Sicily with the Joppolo Association. A particular encounter—with Angela, Francesca’s mother—proved decisive: “I realized it wasn’t just about nostalgia, but also about guilt and a need for reconciliation.”
From then on, the filmmaker chose to broaden her perspective to include those who remained in the homeland. The film became a choral work shaped by the ideas of spartenza, but also restanza and ritornanza, concepts developed by anthropologist Vito Teti: staying as an act of resistance, returning as a way of reinvesting in one’s land.
Aesthetically, Il Paese moves between observation and visual poetry. Rejecting any voice-over narration, the director lets the protagonists carry the story themselves. The testimonies, often raw and spontaneous, give the film a rare authenticity. Through interviews, family archives, and fragments of memory, the work is constructed like a mosaic of voices and emotions.
A key creative decision was to abandon narration entirely: “At first, I wanted narration to guide the viewer, but that limited the film. Without it, the stories interact more freely.”
The depiction of landscape and daily life also plays a central role: “It was essential to show how beautiful this place is, even though so many people were forced to leave it.”



The Mayor of Joppolo: “Roots That Do Not Break”
In a Facebook post dated April 8, the mayor of Joppolo Giancaxio, Domenico Migliara, praised the work of Francesca Lo Dico and Shelley Tepperman, emphasizing the film’s role as a bridge between generations and communities.
“Roots do not recognize distance,” he wrote, reminding readers that identity continues to live on, even far from its place of origin. He added: “Joppolo Giancaxio is a home. Always.”



A message that perfectly captures the spirit of the documentary: Joppolo Giancaxio remains an anchor point, a symbolic home capable of connecting those who left with those who stayed.