Rtells a piece of Italian history, fiction Circeo (up tonight Rai 1 the second episode is broadcast). An episode of brutal violence against two girls, a feminicide, the relevance of which must make us think. Yesterday – like today – there were torchlight processions and demonstrations to say enough is enough. But women continued to be killed.
In the new episode of Circeo the director Andrea Molaioli focuses on the trial against Donatella’s rapists and Rosaria’s murderers: Angelo Izzo, Gianni Guido and Andrea Ghira, owner of the villa of horrors. A process that has become a collective symbol: inside and outside the courtroom there are all the women shouting for justice.
Circeo: the plot of the second episode
Latina, 30 June 1976. It’s the first day of the trial against the rapists and murderers of Donatella (Ambrosia Caldarelli) e Rosaria (Adalgisa Manfrida). For the majority of Italian students it is the day of the final exam, for the “girl from Circeo” it is another day that marks her life. He hasn’t seen his tormentors face to face for nine months. The lawyer Teresa (Greta Scarano) together with Fausto Tarsitano (Enrico Ianniello) fights with all his strength to obtain justice.
Angelo Izzo and Gianni Guido are present in court with their clients. Lacks Andrea Ghira, the owner of the mansion of horrors. His friends defend him by saying that he was not in that house that day. Donatella is distressed by the idea of seeing them again. «It’s not a speed race, a trial – Teresa says to Donatella – it’s more like a marathon: you have to conserve your energy and take it one day at a time.”
Very complicated days follow for the eighteen-year-old: he must also return to the place of the drama to tell his story in front of the lawyers and the judge the most terrible 36 hours of his life. She has experienced things that would have killed anyone but she proves, despite everything, to have survived.
The defenders of the massacres are looking to demonstrate that Rosaria’s death did not occur in the trunk of the white 127. The aim is to restart the process from the beginning, in Rome. Furthermore they ask for mental infirmity for their clients. We arrive at July 28, 1976, at the last hearingwhen mitigating circumstances are requested to avoid a life sentence.
The trial of the “Girl from Circeo” becomes a trial for women’s rights
For the first time the pages of newspapers talk about the women’s question, the process becomes a mediatic, symbolic and collective process: inside and outside the courtroom there are women crying out for justice. Leading that “movement” is the lawyer Tina Lagostena Bassi (Pia Lanciotti) which has a very specific purpose: shake up civil society and reform the law on sexual violence.
Adalgisa Manfrida and Ambrosia Caldarelli. (Rai press office)
At the time, rape was considered a crime against public morality and not against the person. With Donatella’s trial the rights of all women come into play they take to the streets to demand life imprisonment for the three defendants, who fight together with Donatella and for Rosaria. Some of them are even inside the courtroom: they want to shake consciences.
Tensions are high, but it’s important to keep your anger in check and tone it down so as not to blow up the process. In fact, the defenders of the murderers appeal to anything to reduce the sentence.
Teresa’s difficult past
During this second episode of Circeo we will know better Teresa (the character invented by the screenwriters played by Greta Scarano) and his past (why is she so grumpy with her mother?) and the paparazzo Xavier (Angelo Spagnoletti), who is not as cynical as we have seen so far.
The photographer slowly manages to gain the lawyer’s trust, always very guarded and defensive. We will finally find out a little about her past, her father, mother and uncle.
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