New Movie “40 Seconds” a hit at Rome Festival
TORONTO – The 20th Rome Film Festival concluded this past Sunday, awarding several Italian filmmakers with some of its top prizes. Among them was Jasmine Trinca’s performance in Andrea De Sica’a In The Eyes of Others for which she received the Best Actress – Monica Vitti – Award. Debutant director Alberto Palmiero won best first feature award for his film Freestyle, about a filmmaker who leaves the business for a simple life in his hometown. But Vincenzo Alfieri’s true story 40 Seconds looks poised to get the most post-festival buzz, after its cast took home the Special Jury Prize.
Set in “the suburbs” of Lazio, 40 Seconds is loosely based on Journalist Federica Angeli’s book of the same title. Angeli, who’s worked for decades as a crime and legal reporter for La Repubblica, is known mainly for her investigations into the gypsy Mafia of Rome. She was even briefly kidnapped by a member of the Spada family and later placed under police protection because of a shooting she witnessed in Ostia.
Now, her book and Alfieri’s film 40 Seconds is about a 2020 murder in the suburban town of Colleferro, Lazio. It was the murder of Willy Monteiro Duarte – at the hands of youth gangs – after he attempted to de-escalate a fight in order to help a friend. After being punched and kicked to death by a gang of youths, his death prompted outrage across Italy, sparking a national debate about youth violence.
His heroic act was posthumously awarded the Gold Medal for Civil Valor, and the “Daspo Willy” law was passed by the Italian Government, which established harsher punishments and bans for violent acts. In the aftermath, Willy was made a symbol of youth violence awareness in Italy.
The film will now attempt to immortalize his courageous act for international audiences, following its world premiere on October 17th in Rome.
“This story is above all about ordinary kids. It’s not a story of crime, but of pain. A story of people like all of us”, says the Director. Alfieri has crafted a film that honours not only the death of Duarte, but the life and aspirations which were interrupted by what seemed to be a fateful course of events, or what he terms an unfortunate “inevitability”.
“As a child, I spent time in difficult places, and I know the terrible value of inevitability. Things sometimes happen beyond our control. And after visiting the real places, listening to podcasts, reading interviews and books about the story, interviewing friends and acquaintances on both sides…I understood that no one really knows what happened, and that so many things have been said, but few have grasped the soul of Willy and the story”, explained Alfieri.
40 Seconds will be released in Italian cinemas on November 19th and was produced by Eagle Pictures (The Boy with the Pink Trousers).
Images courtesy of Eagle Pictures
Massimo Volpe is a filmmaker and freelance writer from Toronto: he writes reviews of Italian films/content on Netflix
