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Foxy Knoxy stars in prison movie
Nick Pisa in Rome11 Dec 2008
MURDER suspect Amanda Knox will star in a film shot in her prison and set to be screened at a film festival in Italy.
She is accused of killing British student Meredith Kercher, 21, in Perugia after she refused to take part in a drug-fuelled sex game.
Knox, also 21, features in short film L'Ultima Citta, The Last City, described as a "voyage of fantasy inside the women's wing at Perugia jail, through the prisoners".
Filming of the 47-minute production took place in secret several weeks ago after director Clauido Carini was given permission by the prison governor.
It shows Knox, who has described herself as "Foxy Knoxy", reciting poetry and plays by Shakespeare, Portuguese writer Fernando Pessoa and Spanish dramatist Pedro Calderon de la Barca.
In one scene, as Knox recites Hamlet, she looks straight at the camera and says: "To be or not to be, that is the question."
The film is to be screened this weekend as part of the Batik Film Festival in Perugia. According to the film's website, L'Ultima Citta sees "time and space flake away on the faces of the protagonists, the walls dissolve until they become imaginary places".
The film was given 15,000 euros (£13,000) funding by the social services department of the local Umbria regional council. Other films in the festival include one called Actresses by Valeria Bruni Tedeschi - the elder sister of French president Nicolas Sarkozy's wife Carla.
Knox's film is due to be screened on Sunday, but today there appeared to be some confusion about whether it would go ahead. Lawyers asked for the screening to be put back but organisers insisted they would show it.
Mr Carini said Knox asked to be in his film. He added: "Amanda was very disciplined, diligent and good. She really focused on the work as did the other inmates. It was the first time that I had made a film in prison.
"Up until then all I had done was put on shows in jail for the inmates. There are no costumes or sets in the film and it was all shot in the prison theatre against a simple background. The problem is now we are not sure if it will go ahead - as the director I want it to be screened but some people are saying that it is too close to the trial which starts next month. "
Umbria council said a decision on whether to screen the film would be made shortly.
Knox, from Seattle, and ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, 24, were sent for trial in October but proceedings were delayed until 16 January Both deny murder.
Ms Kercher, from Coulsdon, Surrey, was found semi-naked and with her throat cut on 2 November last year in the bedroom of the house she shared with Knox.
Ivory Coast drifter Rudy Guede was found guilty of murder and jailed for 30 years in October.
Francesco Maresca, the lawyer representing the Kercher family, said Knox "has been an actress throughout this whole tragedy and knows she is on film".
Reader views (1)
It highlights how divorced from reality this girl is. To show the film before she has been convicted or acquitted is irresponsible.
- Frank, Home Counties, England, 12/12/2008 11:37
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