An iconic photo of anti-mafia judges
Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino laughing together became a
point of reference for director Fiorenza Infascelli in her work
on the film "Era d'Estate".
The film offers an intimate look at the two men during a
the few months in 1985 that they spent working together on the
tiny Sardinian island of Asinara, just prior to the start of
their historic Maxi Trial against the Sicilian mafia.
Falcone and Borsellino were killed by the mafia in 1992,
and the image of the two laughing together has become a symbol
for their fight against the mafia, as well as a testimony to the
deep human and ethical understanding they shared.
Era d'Estate (Once in Summer) stars Massimo Popolizio as
Falcone, Beppe Fiorello as Paolo Borsellino, Claudia Potenza as
his wife Agnese Borsellino and Valeria Solarino as Francesca
Morvillo, Falcone's then-girlfriend and future wife.
Following the film's debut last fall at the Rome Film
Festival, it arrives in Italian theatres with a premiere event
on May 23 and 24, timed to the memorial of the two killings that
took the men's lives in May and July of 1992.
In the film's unique glimpse into the personalities of the
two judges, viewers see the events that unfolded during the
weeks that the judges were "exiled" on Asinara with their
families to prepare for the Maxi Trial, after authorities
uncovered Cosa Nostra death threats against the magistrates.
This forced isolation in nature - living together with
their families in a small guesthouse on the island, in the
shadow of the maximum security prison there - set the conditions
under which Falcone and Borsellino managed to write the majority
of their case for the largest mafia trial ever conducted.
The idea for the film came to its director during shooting
for her 2011 film Pugni Chiusi (Clenched Fists), a documentary
about Sardinian chemical plant workers who went to live in the
prison on Asinara in protest.
"One of them took me to see a red house and told me about
Falcone and Borsellino's stay on the island," Infascelli said.
"I got the idea of telling the story of this moment in
their lives, because it's not well-known, and it gave me a way
to show them in a more familial dimension, to understand more
about their personalities," she said.
"I discovered how ironic, how funny they were, and how many
passions they had".
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