Sevening at 9.30pm on Rai 1 there is the last episode of Circeo – story of the massacre of the same name and of Donatella Colasantithe girl who survived the 36-hour attack and rape by three boys in a villa on the Lazio coast. It was 1975. She was saved, her friend Rosaria was not. Will “The Girl from Circeo” finally be able to take control of her life?
The episode opens during a very important day for the trial: Angelo Izzo, Gianni Guido and Andrea Ghira, owner of the Villa Orrori, are sentenced to life imprisonment. The trial becomes a symbol of the feminist struggle to change the law. Only in 1996 was rape declared a crime against the person and not against morality.
Circeo: last episode, previews
July 29, 1976. The Latina assize court condemns Angelo Izzo, Gianni Guido and Andrea Ghira, guilty of murder and rape, sentenced to life in prison. A crucial day for Donatella Colasanti (Ambrosia Caldarelli) and for her friend Rosaria. Justice has been done, but the lawyers of the accused are preparing for the appeal. After that sentence many women began to report their rapists. Teresa (Greta Scarano) wins a battle, but now aims higher, to change the law on sexual violence. Tina Lagostena Bassi (Pia Lanciotti) invites her to work in his studio.
After two years from the events of Circeo everything seems to be the same Before: people have forgotten about Donatella and Rosaria. Meanwhile Donatella moves to Rome: she wants to try to live her life like Donatella and not like “the girl from Circeo”. It will be difficult to erase that label, but the girl who was found in a 127 one night in 1975 after being raped is a warrior who has no intention of giving up.
In 1980 the judges granted 30 years to Gianni Guido. Donatella’s battle was not in vain because her fight gave voice to many women who before the tragic event were destined to remain silent.
The trial on TV to shake consciences
Tina Lagostena Bassi, the women’s lawyer, wants to continue to shake the consciences of the country after the Circeo trial. With the help of a RAI program director he chooses another trial similar to Donatella’s to turn it into a documentary to be broadcast on TV.
Fiorella’s story is chosen that she trusted a man older than her: they were supposed to meet for a job interview and instead the girl is raped by four men. The documentary, broadcast on 26 April 1979, shortly before the Circeo appeal trialkept millions of viewers glued to the television. It’s the first time this has happened with a rape trial.
Ambrosia Caldarelli and Adalgisa Manfrida. (Rai)
Circeo: the appeal trial of 30 September 1980
The appeal process begins on September 30, 1980 of the Circeo case which aims to annul the first degree judgment, i.e. the life sentence ad Angelo Izzo, Gianni Guido and Andrea Ghira. The defendants’ lawyers do everything they can to reduce the sentence and to demonstrate that the three murderers have changed. Four years have passed, the media attention is not the same as in 1976 and there are no feminists in the Rome courtroom.
The focus is on Angelo Izzo’s schizophrenia and then Izzo himself tries to exonerate Guido by assuming his responsibilities in a letter read in the courtroom by his lawyer. On 28 October 1980 the sentence confirmed the life sentence for Izzo and the fugitive Ghirawhile re-determining the sentence a Gianni Guido in 30 years of imprisonment.
What happened to Donatella and her rapists?
In 1996, thanks to the struggle of the feminist movement and the Circeo case, rape was finally declared a crime against the person. Tina Lagostena Bassi he never stopped defending raped women. After 18 years of hiding Ghira died in Spain in 1994. In 1981, a few months after the appeal trial, Gianni Guido escapes from prison.
After years on the run he was captured and in 2009 he finished serving his sentence thanks to the pardon. Angelo Izzo obtained semi-freedom in 2005, kills two other women: he will have to serve another life sentence. Donatella dies in 2005 due to illness. She never stopped fighting for justice.
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