Sport, disability and desire to get involved. These are the elements of The Fantastic 5the RTI and Lux Vide TV series, broadcast on Channel 5 from tonight at 9.30pm. The protagonist is Riccardo, a coach of paralympic athletes played by Raoul Bova. The athletes in question are Gretaamputee and with a prosthetic left leg, Christianin a wheelchair, Elijah, with neuronal difficulties related to movement, the blind Marcia and the new arrival Laura.
In all, there are eight episodes of the first season of the TV series, each lasting 50 minutes. And it’s not just a sports story. The series tells much more: of personal difficulties, passions and human relationships, of love, of relationships between fathers and children and also of disability. But The Fantastic 5 it is not a series that talks about disabled heroes, but about the challenges of life that we all face with difficulty. As the creator of the project Massimo Gramellini says: «Disabled athletes speak to everyone because their external disability reflects our internal one».
The Fantastic 5: the plot
Riccardo Bramanti (Raoul Bova) has just arrived in Ancona with the daughters Anna, 15 years old, and Giorgia, 17with which he struggles to get in tune. Five years earlier Riccardo’s marriage did not last and, following the separation of their parents, the two girls moved to Germany with their mother. After the woman’s death, they are forced to return to live with the father they can’t stand.
Riccardo was in the past a children’s coach who now finds himself faced with a new challenge: coaching Paralympic champions: Christianin a wheelchair, the blind woman Marciathe new arrival Laurawithout a leg due to a road accident, and the smallest of the group, Elijah, a famous sprinter. They don’t respect the new coach who approaches them with difficulty.
The only one Riccardo seems to empathize with is Laurathe latest addition to the group, which has the paralympic sprinter as its point of reference Greta. But her She immediately comes across as grumpy and unpleasant and will give the coach a hard time.
He’ll do it to transform individual athletes into a group to conquer Europe? And will he be able to unite his family? Helping him will be Freddi (Gianluca Gobbi), a long-time friend and current doctor of the Nova Lux company of Ancona, and Alessandra (Gaia Messerklinger), a leg amputee physiotherapist with whom Riccardo falls in love.
The cast of The Fantastic 5 captained by Raoul Bova
Raoul Bova plays the coach Riccardodealing with a small group of arrogant and individualistic aspiring Paralympic champions, and with two daughters he knows very little. In the prestigious Nova Lux Sports Center in Ancona he has to understand how to take the young athletes in whose eyes he reads unhappiness. On the subject, he has a theory: you only win when you are happy. And he will prove it.
Christian (Vittorio Magazzù) is a wheelchair sprinter. He has been since, after an evening at the disco, he woke up in a pool of blood and unable to get up. He can no longer walk, but he will be able to get back up and fight in difficult moments, also thanks to Riccardo. Elijah (Enea Barozzi) is the smallest of the group and is brain-damaged since birth, he therefore has difficulty moving and coordinating his limbs. Her motivation is her mother Letizia and sport. Marzia (Fiorenza D’Antonio) is harsh, cynical and unapproachable. She was a promising tennis player, but then she lost her sight and turned to speed on the track. She has an armor that she can only remove when she trusts people.
The cast of “The Fantastic 5”. (Photo Fabio Lovino)
The disabled actress Chiara Bordi plays Laura
The twenty year old Laura is played by Chiara Bordia disabled actress we met thanks to the series Prism. Here she tries her hand at the role of a sunny and hopeful girl who, due to a car accident, loses a leg. It all seems over until he sees Greta competing on TV, a Paralympic athlete. Laura also wants to try to get on the track. AND Riccardo is the first to believe in her.
«When I was offered the role I was a bit skeptical because I was afraid that disability would be treated in a watered down way – says the actress – disabled people are often elevated to heroes. People with disabilities are tough and unpleasant like everyone else. We are not heroes or victims, but people. The Fantastic 5 it talks about young people, broken families, fathers and sons, passion for sport and finally disability.”
Chiara Bordi and Raoul Bova. (Courtesy Mediaser press office)
The other interpreters of The Fantastic 5: Francesca Cavallin and Gaia Messerklinger
Among the other performers in the series there is also Francesca Cavallin, in the role of the president of Nova Lux, a sports club at the top of the Italian paralympic athletics scene. You’re straight forward with her and there’s really nothing to joke about.
Gianluca Gobbi instead plays Freddiethe medical director of the sports center and Riccardo’s childhood friend: it is he who mentions the name of his old classmate to the managers of Nova Lux.
Gaia Messerklinger takes on the role of a physiotherapist Alessandra, a sunny woman despite an accident causing her to lose a leg. A certain harmony is created with Riccardo. Will love blossom between the two?
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