ONCE UPON A TIME IN ALMERIA: Django Begins
In January 1966, in the harsh desert of Almería in southern Spain, my father, Antonio de Teffé, known to millions on screen as Anthony Steffen, was filming a Western when reality completely bypassed fiction. While shooting in the desert, he was suddenly thrust into the epicenter of a nuclear nightmare: the Palomares incident, where a mid-air collision of a US B-52 bomber accidentally dropped four thermonuclear bombs, triggering the most dangerous 'Broken Arrow' in Western history.
Before the world stood still in 2020, I had written this surreal, apocalyptic chapter as a story for a feature film. The first to believe in 'DJANGO BEGINS' was a visionary German producer from Beta Film, who immediately entrusted the project to the legendary Carlo Macchitella, who enthusiastically took charge of it before his passing a few years ago.
Then, COVID hit, freeze-framing the entire film industry. During that forced pause, I began to look backward. I started connecting the dots of everything that had happened chronologically right before the film story I had written. And as I pieced that timeline together, a sudden, overwhelming realization hit me: I wasn't just sitting on a feature screenplay. I was standing as the sole custodian of a forgotten, never-before-told page of Italian culture. I was looking at the exact, unrepeatable moment in history when the glittering elegance of La Dolce Vita was violently swept away and revolutionized by the dusty, gritty phenomenon of the Spaghetti Western—a seismic cultural shift in which my father was not merely a witness, but a towering protagonist across 27 iconic films.
That realization poured directly out of my heart into my novel 'C'era una volta a Roma', the prequel story that so many of you have embraced. The artistic recognition that followed surpassed every expectation: winning 6 awards—including two Sergio Leone Prizes—and receiving the prestigious Italofonia Award from the Dante Alighieri Society of Düsseldorf, who went on to organize an entire literary festival dedicated to the book. Now, the legend comes full circle with the upcoming release of "Once Upon a Time in Almeria: Django Begins". Step into the saga:
Manuel de Teffé
A huge, heartfelt shoutout to the Almería Western Film Festival, kicking off today in the very heart of Western cinema! To all the filmmakers, fans, and legends gathered in Tabernas: thank you for keeping the flame of Spaghetti Western alive. Viva l'Almería!
