Gariwo
https://en.gariwo.net/righteous/shoah-and-nazism/italy-s-forgotten-heroes-11612.html
Gariwo

Italy's "forgotten heroes"

interview with Oren Jacoby

The tales of cycling champion Gino Bartali, cardinal Elia Della Costa, surgeon Giovanni Borromeo and many other Italians who during World War Two risked their lives to rescue the Jews are told in the movie My Italian Secret. The forgotten heroes which opened the Rome Film Festival on 16 October.

The documentary was produced by the Italy and the Holocaust Foundation of New York, and directed by Oren Jacoby, Oscar nominee in 2005 for Sister Rose’s Passion - the story of a Dominican nun who dedicated her life to fight anti-Semitisms.
We asked Mr. Jacoby to tell us about the birth of this movie and the tales of Righteous people narrated in his documentary. Here is what he told us.

How was the movie ideated? How did you decide to initiate cooperating with the Italy and the Holocaust Foundation?

The Italy and the Holocaust Foundation came to the idea of this film through an article that was in the Wall Street Journal, called An army of Schindlers and published ten years ago. Joseph Parrella read the article and turned around for many years with the idea of shooting a film about the subject. We discussed this together and I decided to do the film in Italy because it is a country that I love very much. This was a great opportunity also for me to explore the subject which is how people choose between Good and Evil and why in the most extreme situations, that we are witnessing also today in a world where there are still genocides and violence, some people are willing to resist that. And if there is something inside people that leads them to do the right thing and to make the right choice.

Who are the “forgotten heroes” of the title of your movie?

They are all the thousands of Italians who when faced with the question whether not do do anything or risk their lives to try and save another human being chose the right thing and were courageous enough to do it.

Why did you chose precisely the Italian Righteous and not other nations' Righteous?

Well, the Foundation was created by Italian Americans, and the film was funded by a group of Italian Americans who where very interested in the longstanding friendship and affinity between the Jewish community and the Italian community in the United States and, they felt, historically in Italy.

Did you know about the tales of these figures before shooting the movie?

No, I didn't know any before doing the movie. We started doing research for the movie and I discovered the characters in the process of working on it. One of them was someone who had a relationship with one of the members of the Foundation before, but the others I found through friends in Italy and through research.

Did you find your favourite story among those in the film?

Well, you can't really pick your favourite, like with your children, but I particularly liked Giovanni Borromeo, a surgeon who had the courage, the humour and the chutzpah to invent a disease, the imaginary “morbo di K”, and he was a character wuth an extraordinary charisma.

Remembering the example of these people could be important today?

Yes, I have been recently at a festival where they screened also movies from recent genocides, in Indonesia in the 60es, the recent genocide in Rwanda, and a kind of a genocide is happening in Syria where a religious group is exterminating another. It happens in the Middle East all the time. So a think we people of the modern world are constantly called to win our fear and dosomething to prevent other people's blood to be shed.

Do you think your work is also against anti-Semitism that is now growing in Europe?

Well. One of the messages of my film is that all men are brothers. One of the Italian characters of the movie says the persecuted are being killed just because they are little different, and I don't know why in my lifetime we should forget about the things that connect us and make us the same and fight to stress the differences between my group and other groups. So hopefully this movie will help people understand we are the same under the skin.

And what do you think could be the power of cinema in telling young people about these stories of courage today?

Maybe someone will want to get closer to these character. If we can change one person, make sure they think they were wrong to think they were superior than somebody else of hate them, if someone changes his mind, than it will be a very good result.

16 October is a very important day in Italy because it is the anniversary of the deportation of Jews from the ghetto of Rome. So what do you think is the importance of showing your movie in Rome on this very day?

When I heard that there were some demonstrations in Italy just a few days ago, there was also an article in the Times about them, I think there is still intolerance around the world but I think more than talking about the past evil we should talk about the good people who made a difference. The Good people who stood up against evil and were able to choose Good are more important for us.

Martina Landi, Gariwo Project Manager and Coordinator

22 October 2014

Don’t miss the story of the Righteous and the memory of Good

Once a month you will receive articles and events selected by Gariwo Editorial Board. Please fill out the field below and click on subscribe.




Grazie per aver dato la tua adesione!

Related content