Beyond Bossetti: From Yara to Marita, All the Women in the Yara Case

If you went to the academy, or the experimental cinematography center, or the Civic theater school Paolo Grassi like me, you know it from day one. In theatre, cinema and TV there are many more roles for men than for women.. Then you learn that in Shakespeare’s time all the female roles were played by actors, because it was inappropriate for a woman to do theatre, it was a prostitute’s job; this is obviously another matter, although it is still good to remember that is where we come from.

The ratio, when it goes well, is 70-30 in favor of the male parts. In the last ten years perhaps things have improved a little, especially thanks to the platforms that assign the entire creation of a series without paying too much attention to the sex of the artists. But this is the world of fiction, what we humans write, what for the most part, once again, is written mainly by men. Then there is reality, fortunately.

I have written many screenplays and theatrical dramaturgies, I like to invent, to have no limits, to be able to surprise by bringing out the unexpected idea, to steer the narration. But dealing with reality, dealing for years with imagining and writing a docuseries strictly based on true events, gives you unique teachings. This is what I would like to answer to those who, almost offended, say to me: «But you wrote cameracafeTV and theatre for Paolo Rossi, Crozza, Sabina Guzzanti, Beppe Battiston; because you also sign docuseries like Sanpa And Yara??

In a documentary you have to deal with the asnot of the What. In a story of collective memory and mass hysteria like this, you have to move from the obsession of chance to dramaturgy. The story is given, you can move closer or further awaychange your point of view, change speed, hear new voices, explore alternative or rarely explored paths, choose to show the same segment commented on by different interlocutors several times, reassemble the same detail, never be satisfied with the first reading or even the subsequent five. But you can’t change a single thing about the facts that happened and you can’t ignore them..

And I assure you that there is only to learn, even from the way things happen, from the way they are said or not said, from the way they are made evident or hidden, and I would say, to stay with the initial example and without wanting to disrespect anyone, even in the cast.

The Yara case is essentially a story of women: Yara, Yara’s mother, the prosecutor Letizia Ruggeri, Bossetti’s wife, the investigating judge Vincenza Màccora, the coroner Cristina Cattaneo and the defense attorney Dalila Ranalletta, Bossetti’s mother, also the judge of the first trial Antonella Bertoia; then obviously there are also the men, first and foremost Massimo Bossetti sentenced to life imprisonment, Yara’s father, the priest Don Corinno, the lawyers and many of the police forces. And it’s not strange at all – I say this to us screenwriters and producers and students of drama schools – it’s life as it happens, without our filter of males jealous of our pseudo-position.

The Yara Case: Beyond Any Reasonable Doubtis a catalogue of women, all central and founding, many strong and resolute, each unique in their actions and relationships. I think of Yaraa thirteen-year-old victim who disappeared into thin air at 6:42 p.m. in the 700 meters that separate her home from the gym, or perhaps she never managed to get out. To the 90 days of absence in which she was simultaneously alive and no longer. To her torn and heartbreaking corpse on which is found the drop that starts the search for Unknown One.

I think about the Yara’s motherwhose voice is enough for me to remember to understand that I do not have the tools to understand her pain, but I see her strength, I perceive her cardinal presence. And she is a mother from a Greek tragedy, with her very few words as heavy as stones and her looks and her silences.

I think about the pm who is consumed by the case, “I haven’t thought about anything else since that November 26th” she will say on the phone. Unfortunately we didn’t have the chance to interview her, but I imagine the reverberation in her private life and the anger of this case that rained down on her one night when she was on duty.

I think about the wife of the Monsterhow you stand up after all this, how you become a lioness who defends your cubs and your family, the dignity of remaining yourself and never giving up the fight, the shock wave of the entire country staring at you, greedy and judgmental.

I cannot forget her courage when in court, when asked directly, she replied: “Yes, I was the one who did the research for the porn; Massimo was coming home tired and I wanted to cheer him up. But lawyer, tell me: is it legal or not legal to watch these things?”. You would like to burst into the courtroom and shout: “Of course it is legal! Of course not! And who else should watch it, porn, in Italy, where tens of millions of people visit pornographic sites every day? Almost all of us watch it, so why this hypocrisy?!”. And please do not forget that at the time there was a women’s weekly magazine that proposed a petition to take children away from Marita Comibecause a mother shouldn’t look at certain things! And it was 2014, not just 14.

I think of the other tragic character who is the Bossetti’s mothera role that would be very difficult to interpret even for Meryl Streep, for the incredible twists and turns and the various versions given, for her looks, her frightened expressions, even for some of her unrepeatable smiles to hide her shame. But the problem of Meryl Streep or whoever for her, does not arise; because certain stories that have happened can perhaps be understood in their complexity only through the genre of the docuseries, which tries to give us back life as it really is.