Alcastì is the meeting place of two great themes as old as humankind: the good and the bad. Every year in various towns and villages of Northern Sardinia (Alghero, Castelsardo, Sassari, Porto Torres, Stintino, Siligo, Martis) in some distinctive places (Asinara National Park, Porto Conte Park) in other places where time seems to have stopped, such as the Tempio Nuchis Detention House, the Sassari multifunctional day center for minors, the Mondo x community of S’Aspru) Alcastì organizes the festival of the good and the bad. Every year books will be presented, but also music and theatre projects, round tables and “trials”. The festival will take place from June to September but will have a prologue on 15 December in Sassari with the presentation of the festival and of Paolo Bellotti’s book “seen from the inside”, with musical incursions taken from the songs of Fabrizio De André. The pre-festival will involve various authors, musicians, lawyers, judges, journalists, also engaged in some trials to be relived with prosecution, defense and an audience that will not be just spectators but will have to decide the verdict. The trial of Cain, Totò Riina, Raffaele Cutolo is planned on some iconic settings and places such as, for example, the island of Asinara.  With some associations, a trial of war and an analysis of conflict resolution is being prepared. There will also be lighter discussions, about comic-book villains: a real meeting between Tex Willer and his most famous enemy: Mefisto. The festival asks only one question: Who are the good and the bad? Who decides to put on the blackboard the good on one side and the bad on the other?  Maybe history, but that, we know, is written by the winners. And then, just to be clear: if Cain and Judas can be considered bad almost unanimously, where do we place Simon Peter who disowns his master? And Noah? Was he really so good, the one who decided to save everyone, good and bad?

Then there is a gray area where there are many characters who can be good or bad, depending on how events unfolded: Stefano Cucchi, for example, the police officers who stormed the Diaz for some as the good against the bad anarchist black bloc but, looking closely between the folds of history, in that school there were only young people who wanted to tell their point of view. In short: it is very hard to understand who is truly good and who is truly bad. Even in comics where the differences seem simple: Mefisto, Joker, Diabolik, Satanik, the redcoats are among the bad guys and Tex, Ginko, Batman and Commander Mark are the good guys. But are we really so sure? Maybe not even the festival will manage to draw up a final list because it’s true: the bad guys are never that bad and even the good guys aren’t exactly very good. It depends on points of view. The debate is open.