The film tells Glilz’s life, from political commitment to the FDG to that as an independent war envoy. The result is a portrait that goes beyond ideological fences. The director: “It was right to tell this character”
The first thing to say on Albatross, il Film written and directed by Giulio Base on the life of the Triestino Almerigo Grilz journalist which will be released in the cinema on July 3, is that it is A nice movie: well, well recited, well built, a small production miracle, made with a budget, all in all limited (2.5 million euros) by One More Pictures with Rai Cinema, the contribution of the Ministry of Culture, Apulia Film Commission and Friuli Venezia Giulia Film Commission and the distribution of Eagle Pictures. The second is that it is A brave movie: Grilz, the first Italian war journalist to die on the field after the end of the Second World War, has long been “the unknown correspondent”, according to the very effective definition that Toni Capuozzo gave him. He had an original sin, for decades considered not overcome: he had played on the right, in the FDG and in the MSI. Taking charge of telling his story was not a obvious choice. The third is that It is a political film, but not in the sense that one might think. Politics runs through the whole film and affects the character of the protagonists, but its political intent is the one that the base summarized at the press conference explaining that she wanted to “break down walls”: “dig in the past, make a film in the present, give a key to the future: dialogue”.
“Albatross”, Giulio Base’s film on Almerigo Grilz
The film – shot entirely in Italy, where the scenarios of the different places in the world in which Grilz operated as a correspondent have been reconstructed – opens with square clashes, in Trieste, between opposite factions: Grilz, played by Francesco Centorame, leads that of the right; Vito, a fantasy character played in the past by Michele Favaro and in the present by a wonderful Giancarlo Giannini, that of the left. If they give them of good reason, but when it is time to escape from the police they help each other. From there a bond will be born, rather than a true friendship, based on mutual respect and on the recognition of the other by itself in his humanity, beyond the ideological fences that are also high.
A reference to putting prejudices and ideologies aside
It is through Vito, especially that of the present, which base gives back to the viewer the need to put aside prejudices and ideologies and start looking at people again. While he is the same director, in a brief participation as an actor, to take on the burden of playing the “more unpleasant” character, the one who opposes the affixing of a plaque in memory of Grilz on the headquarters of the Order of Journalists of Trieste. “That character – explained Base – is a bit of a short circuit, but wanted. I wanted to emphasize that there is no propaganda here, that there is cinema here, there is complexity “.
Adventurous life of an “independent war correspondent”
Base admitted that he had “a little made his hand from the affection” towards Grilz and that he also wanted to give an account of the “criticisms” that over time had been moved to him. In summary, the narrative still in force in some environments according to which Grilz would have been first of all a “fascist church” and one who was a war journalist not for the love of the news, but to tell the stories that he felt more similar in a partisan way.
At that point of the film, however, that narrative is already very distant: in the film we see the momentum with which Grilz embraces the profession of “independent war envoy”, as he loved to define himself; The way in which he arrives after a “sabbatical” period in which he takes his first steps as a photojournalist on the streets of Europe, chasing first of all his desire to discover the world; The enthusiasm and almost the youth unconsciousness with which, together with Gian Micalessin and Fausto Biloslavo (who actively participated in the improvement of the screenplay and were at the presentation, editor’s note), founded the Albatross news agency to have a professional “coverage” during work in the areas of the most forgotten wars. We see him dismay in the face of the blood of the fighting, suffering in the long gears following the contingents, aware that “they are one of the few satisfied by the work he does” and proud in claiming that he has no victims, even if his work, for political reasons, is more appreciated abroad than in Italy.
And again, we see him in love, light -hearted, enthusiastic, angry, excited, as a boy first and young man who embraces life with courage can be, until the moment when on May 19, 1987, at 34, he filmed his death, hit in Mozambique during the focuses between the guerrillas of Renamo and the government of the freelimo.
The director: “It was right to tell this character”
“It was right to tell this character,” he said base, explaining that he had studied a lot to understand it. The film had a long gestation, the first idea appeared in 2019, the filming started in November 2023. For the base the introduction of Toni Capuozzo was decisive, to which the figure of Vito is inspired, to one of the books he was reading: a journalist of a completely different political setting that warns that the figure of Grilz must be respected.
Cardinal Zuppi: “The story of Almerigo Grilz is an important story”
“The story of Almerigo Grilz is an important story, of a brave man who made known what was hidden, who did not exist because there were no images. We really have to know the knowledge of a reality, that of Mozambique, and the courage to go and risk his life as unfortunately then happened for him, “said Cardinal Zuppi, in a video message shown during the press conference and created for the presentation of another work on Grilz, the documentary Mozambique Mission 2025 by Davide Arcuri, who tells the journey of Biloslavo and Micalessin to affix a plaque on the secular tree under which the remains of Almerigo rest in the African country.
The possible controversies? Giancarlo Giannini based on: “Futttenn”
“Do you expect controversy? And, in case, how does it respond? », Was asked based on. “If I didn’t expect them, I would be an deluded,” replied the director, telling that he had received a message from an important journalist who, even before having seen the film, said that “Leni (Riefenstahl, ed) did it, let’s see where you arrive”. “In Trieste – he added – someone from the crew refused to participate in the work. I hope that the criticisms will come after seeing the film because with the prejudice they make damage. When they arrive, I will evaluate how to answer ». Meanwhile, Giancarlo Giannini gave him a priceless suggestion: “Futtitenn”.
