Aldo Di Russo

Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.
Albert Einstein

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The courtyard walls mutate, metamorphose, break up and reshuffle, becoming the background for our historical figures. Magical screens that mix medieval elements, architecture, graphics, history, monologues and surprising special effects. We see the incredulous expression of Gottfried, an emissary of the Pope sent in disguise to spy on the Court. He recounts of the Emperor’s marvels and loves, his daring to challenge the power and his dream to become master of every form of knowledge.

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The emperor is designing the strategy of his kingdom: culture and art as governance tools. Planning to set up new universities, schools, he calls poets, astronomers, and architects without been prejudiced against culture and faith because knowledge is the starting point of pacific coexistence. Gottfried, on the contrary, put religious credo before discovering, believe before philosophy, prayers before poetry.

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So spying Frederick and his court he reveal all the buildings, the constitution, the process of living together with three religions in peace and in cooperation. He reveals how the Stupor Mundi has in great consideration the Arab medicine and science, how he puts together Germans and Sicilians, how he forecasts the Mediterranean to be the center of the world.

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But the spy has been discovered. The archers shot the bird with which he carried his letter to the pope. But Gottfried von Hutten acted in good faith. He joined the court, he lied, he spied, he betrayed his emperor only to serve God, the pope, his religion. In the end, from an ancient book where the author imagines to have found the story, Frederick II, the Stupor Mundi as people say, tells us that his actions were not inspired by power, but by the desire and knowledge, literature and science.
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