dDirected by Beatrice Borromeo Casiraghifinally comes up Netflix the docu-series in three episodes Prince. A portrait between lights and shadows of the life of Vittorio Emanuele of Savoy and of the events that, in 1978, saw him in the dock for the (accidental) death of Dirk Hamer.
Prince: on Netflix the docu-series on Vittorio Emanuele of Savoy
Structured in three episodes of about 40 minutesthe story of the docu-series kicks off on August 18, 1978. That day a group of young people on holiday in Sardinia – among them Giovanni Malagò and the playboy doctor Nicky Pendefreshly divorced from Stefani Sandrelli – they decide to do a boat trip to the island of Cavallo in Corsica. Frequented for many years by Vittorio Emanuele of Savoy, his wife Marina and the young Emanuele Filiberto.
After an afternoon of water games and uproar, the patrol of boys is forced to stop and sleep on their respective boats and, after an evening spent reveling, Pende and his associates steal a small boat owned by the Savoys. Unleashing the baleful wrath of the prince. Vittorio Emanuele thus takes his carbine and goes with another boat where the boys had moored. A quarrel with Nicky Pende ensues and, after a daring brawl, two shots are fired from the Prince’s rifle: one at the bottom while the other hits the leg of Dirk Hamer, a 19-year-old German on holiday with his sister Birgit together with the others. Vittorio Emanuele is arrested but (perhaps) things didn’t go exactly like this.
The death of Dirk Hamer
Handsome, athletic, polyglot and not even 20 years old, the young German was in Corsica by pure chance and, at least according to the testimonies, in order to protect his beautiful sister Birgit from the “assaults” of the company’s playboys. After the night shooting, the boy was taken to the hospital in San Bonifacio in Corsica, with considerable delay, to then be transferred to Nice. From that moment it will start an ordeal for him but also for his family since his clinical situation is really serious.
Birgit Hamer together with her siblings and parents. (Netflix Press Office)
Hoping to save him, the doctors amputated his injured leg and, in the following weeks, he underwent 19 surgical operations but, after more than a hundred days in the hospital, Dirk dies in December with his father, mother and sister Birgit at his bedside. That, during the funeral, she will throw a ring into the coffin as if to promise him before God that she will do everything possible to seek justice. And it is just that the fulcrum of the documentary which finally brings some order to a complicated story and absolutely paradigmatic of certain distortions of justice.
A precise and well-crafted docu-series
Focusing mainly on the intricate judicial affairs of Vittorio Emanuele, Beatrice Borromeo in her first performance as a director amazes for lucidity and intelligence storytelling. By superimposing various temporal planes on the narrative with the help of direct testimonies of the protagonists and with good archival material. The three installments of Prince in fact they are so focused on the tragedy that happened to Dirk Hamer but, with punctual and never intrusive editing, the director also focuses on the life of the failed King of Italy. Making him tell an unhappy childhood devoid of affection, the exile from Italy along 50 years and the love for his wife Marina Doriaformer water ski champion.
The heir to the House of Savoy has a complex personality who, even after the uproar of Hamer’s death, will return to the courts several times for corruption and gambling. But Beatrice Borromeo also focuses on Birgit Hamer, tragic co-protagonist of the story who for decades fought in the name of her beloved brother.
Indeed, after years of trials and hearings postponed – for some due to the power exercised by the Savoys – Vittorio Emanuele was definitively acquitted of murder charges in 1991. The proof of innocence? The caliber of the bullet found in the boy’s leg is that of a pistol and not a rifle, thus ending a 17-year nightmare for the prince. While Dirk’s death will be left without culprits. Thus mixing the crime genre with the historical story, the docu-series, with absolute impartiality, he puts a series of objective elements on the plate without ever favoring a thesis. Innocentist or guilty.
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