The disappearance of Emanuela Orlandi 42 years ago. His brother Pietro presents a documentary made with the daughters Elettra and Rebecca: “Emanuela is the aunt they have never met”

Emanuela’s disappearance: his brother Pietro Orlandi, who has never stopped looking for her, tells it, in a documentary presented at the Giffoni Film Festival. Title: 42like the number of years spent from the disappearance of Emanuelaon June 22, 1983 in Rome.

A film produced by Alessandra De Vita and made by Pietro in collaboration with the daughters: Elettra, who directed it, and Rebecca, who had a director’s assistant and composed the closing song, Oak cloak. «We wanted to talk about the story from an intimate point of view with the intention of telling what the other thousands of families with events similar to ours live. The only way to get to the truth is that Emanuela Orlandi is not forgotten, “he explains.

Who, in your opinion, hindered the discovery of truth for all this time?
«Certainly someone inside the Vatican. They always say that I have it with the Vatican, but I am angry precisely because I consider the small state where we were born and we lived our home. And, on the other hand, it is precisely there that some continue to hide the truth ».

Now there is also a parliamentary commission of investigation into the Emanuela case. Do you hope that something new will come to light?
«I have contacts with a dozen commissioners and have the will to go to the bottom. I made them the names of people who should be heard, who could make a contribution on issues never deepened earlier. But others in the commission, and also some consultants, instead, try to brake. Until a few years ago when I turned to politics for help, everyone, any party, replied to me: “There is the Vatican of the middle, I don’t get me by”. Today, however, the commission is despite the Vatican had opposed its Constitution. And this is a positive thing ».

He said about the human side of the story. How much is the fact that behind the disappearance of her sister there are a series of hypotheses, more or less real, ranging from secret services to the Magliana band, from international terrorism to pedophilia in the Vatican, also had an impact on the way you and her family have experienced this drama?
“At the time of secret services I had heard only in the movies, I didn’t even know they really existed. The night of the disappearance, the police had not accepted our complaint and the next day, when we returned, they told us: “You find some clues”. In the very first days for us it was to go around Rome to look for her, with the fear of finding her dead behind a bush. Then everything changed after the appeal of John Paul II and the request of the alleged kidnappers of an exchange with Ali Ağca. I don’t say that at home that was a day of celebration, but we were all happy because it made us believe that Emanuela was alive and not killed by a maniac. Instead, from that moment, it happened that we were put aside, the family no longer counted anything. And gradually it became everything more and more absurd. We had the key to the door attached to the door because every day the secret services agents were at home. For a long time we trusted. Services, law enforcement, the Vatican … always and only told us: “You are calm and silent” … it is really impossible to tell everything that happened ».

She has six children who were not born at the time. What did the case of Emanuela mean for them?
«I have three males and three females, the largest is 30 years old, the smallest makes 18 in September. They were born with this aunt who is not there, but that one day they could know. They were of enormous help, they were close to me in the events, in the petitions. If I can have a mental balance – because I would have made follies – it is thanks to them. Even today someone would not wait to see me out of my mind to say that I’m not credible. My children live the situation with more serenity than me, but the surname Orlandi weighs on them too ».

Have you asked for a meeting with the new pontiff, Leone XIV?
“No. I asked for it with Pope Francis but he has always been denied us. The first signs arrived from Leone XIV, however, are not positive. The Pope could have remembered Emanuela during Angelus on June 22nd which was a Sunday. I was in San Pietro and waited. It would have been enough to say: today the anniversary of the disappearance of our Vatican town Emanuela occurs. And instead, nothing ».

Her mother is 95 years old. Do you also hope that the truth about your daughter will be revealed?
«The pain of a brother is not comparable to that of a mother, of a parent. I realized it when I became a father for the first time. My mother begins to suffer from a slight form of Alzheimer’s … he says: “But why did they take it? What did he do, what did we do badly?”. It doesn’t remember everything that happened. He asks me: “How old have they passed since his disappearance?”. And I don’t have the courage to tell you that they are 42. Sometimes, some details return to her, but a moment later she forgets. But every time I go to see her the first thing she asks me is: “Did you find it?” ».