“If they had told me I couldn’t have come to Venice because I lined up with the Palestinians, I would come and I would have taken the whistles.” The director Daniele Vicari, presenting his highly anticipated film “Killing tired. Autobiography of a killer “(Venice Spotlight section) sides for freedom of expression and information. The film on the true story of the repentant of ‘Ndrangheta Antonio Zagari (who died in 2004 in a motorcycle accident), Reggio di San Ferdinando, known for having used writing as a means of rebirth and freedom, acquires further meaning: “In these days we have seen many people being afraid to express their opinion on what Israel, Putin and Trump are doing. In this sense, Antonio’s story is exemplary: we can recognize ourselves in him, without fear of being misunderstood; And it is the strength of a narrative genre in which all the frustrated in the world are recognized, and I among these ».
Filmed between Emilia and Calabria, with filming in Lamezia, Spezzano and Camigliatello, San Luca and Bovalino, the film – freely inspired by the homonymous memorial of Zagari, published by Aliberti and adapted by the director with Andrea Cedrola – uses the stylistic features of the crime to tell the story of a young man (Gabriel Montesi) who begins to write in prison, after having accomplished several criminal actions. While his peers in the mid -1970s rebel against strong powers, Antonio addresses his protest against his father Giacomo (Vinicio Marchioni), Capobastone transplanted to Lombardy. “Asking the question:” Who am I? “, Zagari talks about freedom – said the director – realizes that he is not free, especially because of his father, who wants him his soldier”.
History also arises an important ethical question. “We fell asleep for a few decades and then we realized that killing had returned to being something that can be done – continued Vicari -. You are in front of my house, I can kill you; You are a neighbor of mine, I can kill you; You are a people who bother me, I can kill you. Instead, the experience of a killer is useful to us because he teaches us that if I kill you give up yourself, kill a little bit of you. And the fact that Zagari has entitled his memorial “Killing tired”, paraphrasing “Working tired” of Pavese, is extremely interesting because it means that he met poetry on his way, and he asked himself deeper questions. He is an illiterate writer with the narrative awareness of a sailed author ».
Very intense roles for Montesi and Marchioni. “The element of the body was fundamental – said Montesi -. For Antonio killed, he was even physically unsustainable; And this is combined with the discovery of human feeling through the pen that breaks a life scheme, even familiar ». “With Daniele we talked about Giacomo as an animal, not a man – has revealed Marchioni – of more military relationships than familiar, in which orders are performed without discussing in order not to put the life of the family at risk. Giacomo sees a book in his son as a threat, and is one of the keys to this role, contrary to any normal father-son dynamics ».
The only light in Antonio’s life, his girlfriend Angela, to whom he gives face the Palermo actress Selene Caramazza. «He is a free and independent young man who chooses to love him despite the context in which he grew up. It is his safe harbor, the only one who manages to see him in his essence ». Rocco Papaleo, Thomas Trabacchi, the Palermo actress Aglaia Mora and the actor Reggio Saverio Malara are also in the cast. Produced by Pier Giorgio Bellocchio (in the film Colonel Becker) and Manetti Bros. for Mompracem and Rai Cinema, with the support of the Commission films of Calabria and Emilia-Romagna, the film will be in the room from 4 December for 01 Distribution.