Open Your Eyes...and Live "The Draw"

On the occasion of the RAI Fiction Week, the world premiere of the TV Film “Il Sorteggio” [The Draw] took place on Tuesday, January 19, at Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò of NYU. Produced by RAI Fiction and directed by Giacomo Campiotti, the film stars Giuseppe Fiorello and offers a special appearance by Giorgio Faletti.
 

Giuseppe Fiorello

Giorgio Faletti

Gioia Spaziani

Ettore Bassi

The Draw is the story that was missing, the story that related the 'Years of lead' from the point of view of the third party, the people.

Up until now the world of cinema has narrated the history of the Red Brigades either seen from the eyes of the State, or from the eyes of the terrorists. But the real unwilling protagonists of the story – the Italians – were caught somewhere in the middle.

Those who were harmed have never had a voice within the national fiction. This film gives them back a voice by showing average men and women – who fight daily battles to gain bread and a parenthesis of lightness and passion – telling us about those distant 1970s. These citizens don't recognize themselves in the State, and aren't even aware of it. The State is seen as a master that takes without giving back. But at the same time they don't agree with the methods and the violence of the terrorists. It's them, the passengers of a derailed train, that must find their own answer, their fragile balance between that in which they believe and that which they must respect.
 

The film takes place during the '70s in Turin, observing the life of FIAT workers. Tonino (Giuseppe Fiorello) is a man who lives without being overly concered about life. He's not serious with his girlfriend (Gioia Spaziani), isn't interested in the battles of his fellow workers, or in politics, doesn't care about his mother's expectations. His way of conquering lightness is by dancing. Tango is his suspension from the world, far from responsibility and hard work. But chance, a draw, forces Tonino to come to terms with his role in society.
 

The time comes for him to make a choice, to take a side and decide what kind of man to be. He gets drawn for jury duty for a trial against the Red Brigades. His first reaction is one of confusion, not understanding what the State wants from him. What follows is an adolescent kind of joy in getting some days of paid vacation. But in the end, chilling, comes fear. Terror.
 

One by one, all the members of the jury are threatened by the Red Brigades. If the legal number of six members (six righteous people, as pronounced by the judge, played by Ettore Bassi) isn't reached, then the trial can't take place. And that's the objective of the accused: dismantle the State's structure through terror. 

Tonino is caught in the middle. He seeks help from his friend Gino, a Labor Union leader  played by Giorgio Faletti, to find a solution to his doubts. Gino believes in individual responsibility, in the power of the single person, in reason, and that the State often makes mistakes, but also that mistakes can't be washed away with blood. He tells him that is he declines his duty he loses the right as a free citizen to complain and criticize the wrongs of his country. Because the State is made of people who make choices.
 

Tonino is a tightrope walker, making his way along the thin rope of his conscience, knowing he could get killed, but also realizing that if he declines, he would be giving up the only opportunity he'd have to make a difference and would still be killing a part of himself.
 

The movie was screened to a full house and the public was moved and appreciated the film. Members of the cast and crew of this challenging project declared their satisfaction for having presented the film for a New York audience.

The director told us that he doesn't consider this a historical film, but a film about the relationship between citizen and State that equally describes Italy today. 

In relation to this Giuseppe Fiorello told us that growing up in Sicily, the terrorism of the Red Brigades was hardly noticed, since there was another kind of terrorism to deal with on a daily basis, Mafia.
 

That is why he chose to play this role. “I didn't know many of the facts that the movie relates and that's why I accepted the part. I frequently choose my characters because they represent the opportunity to get a closer look at reality and events I ignore. Luckily I don't know anything – he said with a smile – so I always have the chance to learn something.”

Luckily we can see this old story through a new pair of eyes, making it become a story about Italians today. Luckily we learn to recognize and admire the silent righteous men.