Many people who read the script though the character of Franco Nero was based on the Battisti case that was all over the international news in 2011. Actually, he was inspired in a group of Italians that took refuge in Brazil in the 1980s and here rebuilt their lives. Some of them were later arrested by the Federal Police by request of the Italian Government.
All of them were released after months in prison for being considered political prisoners and, therefore, weren’t extradited. Among them was Piero Mancini, owner of a video producer in Rio de Janeiro, who was arrested in June of 2005 and stayed 6 months in prison. Here he talks about his experience:
To rescue the memory of the Italian political process is essential against the obscurantism with which the Italian institutional politics deals with the issue of the “Years of Lead”. In Italy we still don’t talk about amnesty. The militants of that generation are still considered common criminals. The comparison with the Brazilian legislation helps to better understand the fascist and retrograde character of the Italian regime, not only of the Berlusconi regime.
What did you feel when after years in Brazil you were suddenly arrested because of acts performed decades ago?
I thought it was absurd...because I was living legally in the country for more than 25 years, with fixed address and legal documentation. But I thought it could be a way to politicize and demystify in Brazil the issue of amnesty in Italy. What really happened...It was part of the global revolutionary movement with characteristics stressed by the armed conflict and social conflicts highly insurrectional.
What did you get from the prison experience?
Teve um fator altamente positivo, além da divulgação da temática sobre a anistia política na Itália, de caráter pessoal. Tirou parte do meu sentimento de culpa por ter evitado, ao vir para o Brasil, os grandes sofrimentos que tantos companheiros tiveram ficando presos décadas nos cárceres italianos.
Franco is a great actor that has always acted in films that are controversial and critical to the status quo. Humanely, fully corresponds to his artistic qualities.
“I had a huge curiosity to know Brazil. When I received the script from Lucia Murat, I accepted immediately because the film is stimulating and my character is very well developed. I prepared myself for two months still in Italy with a coach for Portuguese language. I think it was a process that mixed study and invention. In Brazil I had the pleasure to personally meet some of the Italians in which the character was inspired and it was such a good relation that it became a friendship. To film in Brazil was a pleasure. The team was very professional and friendly. I felt at home.”
Franco Nero.
