Giving voice to the flood victims, their fears, their hopes, their anger. This is what Valerio Baroncini, deputy director of ‘Il Resto del Carlino’, and Marco Santangelo, journalist, managed to do in 60 very intense minutes in the docufilm, one year after the catastrophe in Romagna, capable of speaking to the hearts of the spectators and making them feel participants in a collective drama. It was in this spirit that the screening of ‘Ho Saw the End of the World – The Story of the Flood’, the docufilm directed by Baroncini and Santangelo, to testify , with images and words, the devastation caused by the flood that engulfed the cities, towns and lands of nearby Romagna. The film is accompanied by a soundtrack written by Marco Reno Solferini, a composer originally from the flooded areas, and was produced by Qn – il Resto del Carlino in collaboration with the Cineteca di Bologna and with the support of the Bcc of Ravenna, Forlì and Imola . The city of the Pios welcomed the two directors with great sensitivity and participation: over 200 people were present, including the new mayor of Carpi, on his first official outing, Riccardo Righi, the first citizen of Campogalliano, Daniela Tebasti, the vicar general Monsignor Gildo Manicardi, and numerous volunteers from the Civil Protection of Carpi and Campogalliano, from the Red Cross and Blue Cross of Carpi, as well as representatives of the local police, the Carabinieri and the Fire Brigade. All rigorously in uniform, alongside ordinary citizens, people who, a year ago, immediately mobilized to lend a hand to their ‘cousins’ from Romagna, even simply by going, with rubber boots and shovels, to join the army of the ‘angels’ of the mud’. There was no shortage of emotional moments. In our heads and hearts, the drama of Romagna and what we experienced with the 2012 earthquake. In the docufilm there are exclusive interviews with rescued people and saviors, unpublished images of rescue interventions, never-before-heard audio with the emergency calls from those nights of terror. Baroncini and Santangelo, in a lively conversation with the public, explained the genesis of their work and the methods of implementation: a free flow of words from the interviewees, without filters. Silvia from Faenza appears on the screen, the hotel as her new home, her climbing to safety on the roof to survive six meters of putrid water.
The marriage of Isabella, and then Juliana of Sant’Agata, symbol of this drama, she survived while her husband, bedridden, did not make it. “‘I saw hell’ – explained Baroncini – is the phrase that we heard repeated most often by the people we interviewed”.
The testimonies of the local Civil Protection volunteers who in those days worked exhausting shifts to help the population of Romagna are touching: “Only those who have seen all that mud can understand the drama that happened – commented Vanni –. We left at 5 and returned at 11pm, and those poor people asked us if we needed anything, if we wanted a sandwich. I remember one evening, I was completely covered in mud, an elderly lady approached me and hugged me and we cried together.” “In the evening we slept in our bed – continues the colleague – but our thoughts were always of those people”. Luca and Mario are volunteers from Campogalliano: “We worked tirelessly – they say with tears in their eyes -. But we would do it all again and even more”.
The viewing of the documentary film in the city of Carpi was made possible thanks to the collaboration of the manager of Eden and the support of the Lions Club Carpi Host which made the evening free. “We immediately chose to support this project – explains Marco Arletti, president of the Lions Carpi Host – because it is a sign of closeness to the territory and to our Romagna ‘cousins’. Furthermore, it allows us to keep attention high on what has dramatically happened and to leave a trace in history. As a Club we have carried out two initiatives: we immediately started a fundraiser, and this year, with our ‘twin’ club of San Daniele, we helped a historic activity near Lugo, ‘ Il Forno’, an inn-restaurant, to restart its business”.
Nicola Galli, programming manager of the Eden cinema and the Corso, underlines “the community aspect of this project, which was an opportunity to rework together a mournful piece of our history. It is important to have given voice to the people, the protagonists, to those who experienced that drama and who must absolutely not be forgotten.”
