Tonino Guerra - director, poet (1920 - 2012)
He was born in Santarcangelo di Romagna in 1920.
His first production was represented in "Romagnolo" dialetic poems which he wrote while he was held prisoner in a concentration camp in Germany. To be published in the "I Gettoni" series by Elio Vittorini for Einaudi.
At the end of the 50s he had a decisive meeting with Michelangelo Antonioni, the first of a long line of directors who valued his precious collaboration as screen writer.
We must not forget his closeness to Federico Fellini whose friendship gave rise to the masterpiece "Amarcord" in which Guerra presented an authentic anthem to the Romagnolo world and all the poetry connected with it.
The artist lived in Pennabili where he received an honorary citizenship and where he set up suggestive garden-museums and permanent exhibitions which carry the name "I luoghi dell'anima" (the Places of the Soul). Among these "L'Orto dei Frutti Dimenticati", "la Strada delle Meridiane", "il Santuario dei Pensieri" (The Garden of the Forgotten Fruits, The Street of the Meridians, The Sanctuary of the Mind) are worthy of mention.
He died in Santarcangelo on 21st March 2012
The poet's ties with Cervia began long ago, but among the evidence of his presence here we cannot forget, Ulysse's Horse, a small book containing poems written in 14 different languages and dialects in which the author opposed all wars. The booklet, edited during the summer of 1996, was distributed to all the tourists present in Cervia during the initiative "La Spiaggia ama il Libro" (the Beach loves Books).
He also signed the pre-eminent symbol of the three-hundredth anniversary of the founding of the town, an immense carpet adorned with mosaics which hovers over a characteristic garden of the 20s-30s in Cervia.
Official Tourist Information Site of Cervia