The FOCUS of Gaia Serena Simionati: Rubini presents La Camera di Consiglio at FreeStyle

(from Rome Luigi Noera, with the kind collaboration of Eleonora Ono and the contribution of Gaia Serena Simionati – the photos are published courtesy of #ROMEFILMFEST)

Even more so in light of the shocking events that occurred in the intimidating and bombing attack on the journalist Sigfrido Ranucci of Report, it surprises not only for its timing, at the Rome Film Festival, The council chamber, premiered, Out of Competition in the Freestyle section.

Shot entirely indoors, The council chamber adopts a theatrical setting, which restores the tension and isolation of those days.

The work also stands out for the use of archive materials proposed in black and white, which at the beginning separate the historical events from the film story, capable of placing the jurors' events within a broader framework.

Not simply a film “about the mafia”, but a work that reflects on the concept of law and justice. It enlightens consciences on the human and civil experience of those who decided the fate of hundreds of defendants, in one of the highest and most dramatic tests of Italian democracy.

We ask the director how the idea was born:

Infascelli replies that she started from the assumption that no one knew what a council chamber is.

I wanted to explore this idea. I hope it can also help people remember that it was the first mafia trial that finally asserted that the mafia exists!

10 February 1986.

This date represents a judicial and civil turning point that changed the history of our country forever.

We are in the final act of the Palermo Maxi Trial, the largest and longest criminal case in Italian judicial history. On this occasion eight jurors, four women and four men, they are locked in a council chamber for thirty-six days.

Their job is to establish convictions or acquittals for good 470 defendants implicated in mafia. And it is the first time in history that the state recognizes the problem and helps with funds, bunker, stocks to solve it.

Alfonso Giordano (Palermo, 22 December 1928 – Palermo, 12 July 2021) he was a magistrate, Italian jurist and politician. He was the one who presided over the chamber. Rubini says that Alfonso Giordano had the courage to preside over the court, while many others had refused. No one was to be found.

With his temperance and humanity he brought the operation to a successful conclusion, bringing home a result that was not to be taken for granted. It was important to tell the vision of the world, their humanity as normal men. First of all reading among the Greek heroes that all the heroes were afraid including Achilles.

This is what Fiorella Infascelli's new interesting and useful film talks about, starring Sergio Rubini and Massimo Popolizio, alongside an ensemble cast, well integrated into claustrophobic spaces.

It scans, the council chamber is investigated and told, made by valiant men with their stories, hesitations, waivers, fears. But above all with their courage. strange thing, especially nowadays.

In this sense the film teaches and does so also through the interesting, adamantine character of Alfonso Giordano, perfect Sergio Rubini, certainly not chosen for the resemblance.

He does this by probing the judge with upright morality, the angular character, but authentic. And then the man who does Yoga, meditate, he doesn't compromise and has a creative mind, quite atypical for a magistrate, especially coming from the civilian background.

There are many references within the film to the cinema it teaches. Through Frank Capra's films the magistrate learns to play the harmonica and decides to do so.

With the same strength, through this film we can also teach the public about lawfulness, moral rigor and honesty, passing through the enormous example of sacrifice of these brave men 8 men, women and judges.

A strong message transpires in the "council chamber".. Given the delicate and neutered unhappy moment of independent journalism, cinema can take on an indelible power and thaumaturgical role, as well as reporting.

Synopsis: Ben 36 armored days in a bunker-apartment in the Ucciardone prison, they had to decide on convictions and acquittals for 470 defendants. They live together, inmates, in a small space. They cannot communicate with the outside: no television, no phone, no radio. The silence is absolute. They make a lot of sacrifices. They are afraid, but they choose to cede personal interest to the public, in a heroic act of great civic sense. Celebrated at the end of the 1980s, it represents one of the most decisive pages in the history of the Republic. For the first time the State managed to inflict a collective condemnation on Cosa Nostra, recognizing the existence of the mafia organization as a unitary structure.

A choral story with the President of the jury at the centre (Sergio Rubini) and the Judge on the side (Massimo Popolizio). They are joined by Betti Pedrazzi, Roberta Rigano, Anna Della Rosa, Stefania Blandeburgo, Rosario Lisma and with Claudio Bigagli.

Infascelli and Mimmo Rafele wrote the screenplay with the collaboration of Francesco La Licata. Also developed thanks to the consultancy of Pietro Grasso, judge on the sidelines of the Maxitrial.

So, between fears and unexpected exchanges, the council chamber becomes the theater of a unique human confrontation. Realizing in fact, a mammoth judicial operation, extraordinary in its own way, for the duration, intensity and complexity.

Gaia Serena Simionati