A Declaration of Love

2021

A man sentenced to death is found innocent and released after 22 years in prison, 19 of them on death row. Now he has to face a new challenge: to survive freedom. Curtis was only 22 when he was sentenced to death for a crime he didn’t commit and spent 22 years in prison, 19 of them in death row, buried alive below ground in a concrete room with no windows, waiting to be executed, in Oklahoma State Penitentiary. “A Declaration Of Love” by Director Marco Speroni, aims to give voice to a man who is being cruelly persecuted by a perverse legal system, digging into his deepest and most hidden emotions. The film is a visual journey through Curtis’s glance and his sense of displacement towards a world where he doesn’t belong anymore. “A Declaration Of Love” is a singular way of addressing the barbarity of the death penalty and also a chance to explore a crucial question: what does “freedom” mean in a society that refuses a person like Curtis despite all he went through?