It is June 17, 1983 when Enzo Tortora, one of the most popular television conductors of those years as well as host of Portobellowhich at the time could be compared toYour business of De Martino in importance and popularity, he is arrested. Waiting for him out of the Hotel Plaza in Rome where he was staying, dozens of journalists and cameraman who hope to see him collapse and open the page with his face in tears. Enzo Tortora, however, does not seek shelter and does not hide, quite the contrary. He raises his hands trapped by the handcuffs as in an act of challenge, certainly not only of his innocence but also of the fact that society and justice with him have made a petty figure. Forty -two years after that arrest HBO Max, The Streaming platform of the Discovery group that will arrive in Italy in 2026shows the first images of Portobello, the new series written and directed by Marco Bellocchio that, after having told Aldo Moro’s kidnapping with extreme skill in External night and that of Edgardo Mortara in Kidnappedhe is ready to photograph his way one of the most striking cases of malagustice in Italian history.
To impersonate Enzo Tortora is Fabrizio Gifuniwhich already appears perfect from these first frames in returning the stunning and strength of a man unjustly accused by some prisoners of be at the center of drug trafficking managed by the Neapolitan Camorra. Together with him, another 857 people are arrested through a maxi-operation of the Naples Prosecutor’s Office against the Camorra even if, in his case, The accusation is the result of an error and a lie. His name, in fact, is made by some collaborators of justice who identify him as one of the alleged affiliates, even claiming that Tortora had been appointed “Camorra ad honorem” in Milan, but nobody takes the briga to control. The newspapers go crazy, the media pillory starts But Enzo Tortora, despite the sentence of 10 years of imprisonment and the payment of a fine of 50 million lire, does not stop even for a second to declare himself innocent.
Parliamentary immunity refused of which he would have enjoyed having been elected to the European Parliament, the conductor of Portobello faces a long appeal process during which, finally, the truth begins to make its way: the repentant portrayed, It comes out that the name written on the list of alleged affiliates was not “Tortora” but it was “Tortona” And, finally, on June 13, 1987, two years after the arrest, he was acquitted for not having committed the fact. Tortora, reassuring face of Italian television as well as Portobelloa broadcast that made school and that wrote an important page of our show and our society, has not stopped even for a moment to reiterate its extraneousness to the facts, even if defending itself for all that time from the judiciary, from an audience and a star system that had not thought about it a moment to turn her back – except Piero Angelawhich together with some colleagues signed an open letter on Republic To protect him – he led him slowly to consume himself.
After returning to freedom, Enzo Tortora returns to the guidance of Portobellothe program from which he had been suddenly torn, with a sentence – “So, where were we stayed?” – which has shown its elegance and its moral stature. «I could say a lot of things but I will say few. You will allow me: many people have lived with me, she suffered with me these terrible years. Many people offered me what he could, for example he prayed for me, and I will never forget this. I am here, and I know, also to speak on behalf of what they cannot, and there are many, and there are too many ». However, the years that have been removed would not be back, not to mention that Tortora will die a year later, on May 18, 1988for a tumor that was diagnosed shortly after the return of Portobello. Some thought that the disease was a consequence of all the evil it has unjustly faced, and perhaps partly it is true.
That judicial error destroyed a man and a family and, still today, asks many questions and doubts that perhaps Bellocchio’s series will be able to photograph. The series, announced by Warner Bros. Discovery for the new HBO Max streaming platform, It is an Our Film production, a company of the Mediawan group, and Kavac Film, in co -production with Arte France and in collaboration with The Apartment Pictures, a Fremantle group company. It is produced by Lorenzo Mieli and Mario Gianani for Our Films and Simone Gattoni for Kavac Film and sees in the cast, among others, Lino Musella, Romano Maggiora Vergano, Barbora Bobulova, Carlotta Gamba, Alessandro Preziosi, Fausto Russo Alesi and Salvatore D’Onofrio. The series was written by Marco Bellocchio, Stefano Bises, Giordana Mari and Peppe Fiore. The photograph is by Francesco Di Giacomo, the scenography of Andrea Castorina, the costumes of Daria Calvelli, the assembly of Francesca Calvelli, the music of Teho Teardo.
Source: Vanity Fair
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