Tribute to Morricone and Amira Willighagen

Edited by Leandro Pancrazi

The story behind this unusual video is not generally known. Fortunately I happen to be friends with the man who made it and on my pressing him he gave me permission to tell the strange story of how it came about.

Leandro is a native Italian and lives 30 miles outside of Rome. He is a fan of the Dutch prodigy singer Amira Willighagen. Having discovered her sonorous voice and delightful charm during a period of troubles in his life, he often says that watching her performances on YouTube saved him from the brink. He is thus a very devoted fan.

On the night of July 5, 2020, Leandro got an idea for a video tribute to Amira, by intercutting footage of her beautiful curtsies and bows at the end of her concerts with the final scene from the Academy Award winning Italian film "Cinema Paradiso.” In the scene a film director returns to his home town and weeps in a theater as he is shown a compilation of shots of kisses censored from the romantic movies of his childhood by the local priest. The theater projectionist he knew as a small boy had recently passed away and left him the compilation as a parting gift. The music that is playing is by the great movie composer Ennio Morricone, and the song is titled ‘Se’ and means “If.” It is a very romantic song.

Leandro worked on the video late into the night, at last finishing at 3 AM (Italian time) on the morning of July 6. He then went to sleep. Leandro woke to learn that Ennnio Morricone had passed away at the very time he was editing the tribute (at 2 AM Italian time July 6). The tribute turned out to be one to both Morricone and Amira and Leandro had had no idea. Leandro then went to work. When he returned he uploaded the film to Amira's fan page on Facebook, he says around 8PM.

The next morning (July 7) Leandro got a message from Amira Willighagen’s mother in South Africa, on Amira’s FB fan page, thanking him for the video. She said she saw the film as Amira bowing to Morricone’s life’s work, and saying that Amira planned to keep his music alive.

Now, that very night (July 7), about 8 PM, Amira herself uploaded (first to Facebook and a few days later to YouTube) her own completely self-made and edited Tribute to Morricone. Amira sings the song from Leandro's film, ‘Se,’ and it is edited (by Amira) in the same period style. You can find it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnz5Teivvqc

I cannot help wonder if Amira's film was partially inspired by Leandro's. I don't think we'll ever know.

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An update to this story. On December 10, 2023 at the fanday in Madison, GA, USA, I had the opportunity to finally ask Amira if she was influenced by Leandro's film. However, she said she was not aware of the film. So it's just a miraculous coincidence.

– Christopher Ott 7/6/24