Rai Fiction presents a Rai Fiction – Italian International Film co-production Produced by Fulvio and Paola Lucisano Starring Fabrizio Gifuni with Dario Aita and Lorenza Indovina A TV-movie written by Claudio Fava, Michele Gambino, Monica Zapelli, and Daniele Vicari Based on the original book by Claudio Fava and Michele Gambino (Baldini & Castoldi) Directed by Daniele Vicari AWARD NASTRO D’ARGENTO 2018 PER LA LEGALITA’ (SILVER RIBBON FOR LEGALITY) 2 Crew Production Rai Fiction - Italian International Film Director Daniele Vicari Story Claudio Fava, Michele Gambino, Monica Zapelli Screenplay Claudio Fava, Michele Gambino, Monica Zapelli, Daniele Vicari Producers Fulvio Lucisano, Paola Lucisano Executive Producer Giulio Steve Artistic Producer Guia Loffredo Rai Producers Alessandra Ottaviani, Paola Pannicelli Cinematography Gherardo Gossi Assistant Director Alessandro Stellari Casting Adriana Sabbatini Editing Benni Atria Set Design Beatrice Scarpato Sound Alessandro Palmerini (A.I.T.S.) Line Producer Jacopo Cino Costumes Francesca Vecchi, Roberta Vecchi, with Rossella Aprea Makeup Marco Altieri Hair Massimo Allinoro Original Music Theo Teardo Edizioni musicali Rai Com – Italian International Film 3 Cast Pippo Fava Fabrizio Gifuni Claudio Fava Dario Aita Lina (wife of Pippo Fava) Lorenza Indovina Sir Graci David Coco Gaetano Fabrizio Ferracane Elena Fava Barbara Giordano Miki Carlo Calderone Riccardo Federico Brugnone Antonio Simone Corbisiero Giusi Selene Caramazza Rosario Beniamino Marcone Saro Davide Giordano Elena Brancati Roberta Rigano Cettina Manuela Ventura Lo Certo Gaetano Aronica Mother of Pippo Fava Aurora Quattrocchi 4 Before Night, a TV-movie directed by Daniele Vicari, went on-air for the first time on Rai Uno channel Wednesday May 23, 2018 as part of the Italian National Law Day, after premiering at the prestigious Teatro Petruzzelli as part of the BIF&ST Bari Film Festival. Before Night got 3,435,000 viewers and 15.7% share, making it the most viewed program of the first evening. In 2018 "Before night" won the prestigious Nastro d’Argento per la Legalità (Silver Ribbon for Legality), for the high civil and political value of the story. Before Night is a Rai Fiction – IIF coproduction, and was produced by Fulvio and Paola Lucisano. Written by Claudio Fava, Michele Gambino, Monica Zapelli, and Daniele Vicari, Before Night is taken from the book of the same name by Claudio Fava and Michele Gambino (Baldini & Castoldi). Acting alongside Fabrizio Gifuni and Dario Aita, who plays Pippo’s son, Claudio, are Lorenza Indovina, David Coco, Fabrizio Ferracane, Barbara Giordano, Carlo Calderone, Federico Brugnone, Simone Corbisiero, Selene Caramazza, Beniamino Marcone, Davide Giordano, Roberta Rigano, Manuela Ventura, Gaetano Aronica, and Aurora Quattrocchi. The story of Pippo Fava (played by Fabrizio Gifuni) as told by the director Daniele Vicari is in the great Italian cinematic tradition of protest films broadcast on Rai’s Channel 1. It is a tribute to a charismatic and complex character who always went against the grain and never compromised, who always sought to publicise the truth, and who suffered the ultimate consequences for doing so. It is the amazing story of a man who was able to build the future, against all odds. 5 Synopsis After turning fifty, and after a successful career in film, TV, radio and theatre, Pippo Fava decided in 1980 to return to his native Catania to found a newspaper. He also established a school of journalism that focused on asserting the freedom of opinion at all costs. This quickly led to clashes with the local business world and the mafia underlying it, which forced him to shut down the newspaper. To assert the need for independence and impartiality in the profession, together with the help of his son Claudio and the young people whom he had trained to become skilled, dedicated journalists, Pippo continued his journey by publishing a highly successful monthly magazine. The protests against the infiltration of his native city by the mafia, then led by Nitto Santapaola, did not go unnoticed. In fact, Santapaola himself ordered Fava’s assassination. After his death, his young pupils nevertheless continued to search for the truth and work for the freedom of the press. 6 The Story When he received that phone call from Catania, Pippo Fava was at the age at which most people begin to take stock of their lives. Life had been good to Fava: a happy family, a profession at which he excelled and still liked, but above all a talent for writing fiercely and honestly, which had brought him considerable success in the form of novels, theatre plays, and a long career in journalism. And when his city started feeling too small, he decided to move to Rome, where more plays, films, and a new partner awaited him. No regrets for Catania. If not for that call, and the offer it contained: directing a newspaper. A daily newspaper. In his native city. “They’re giving you carte blanche…” explained an old colleague who admired and even envied him, like most of his friends whom he had left behind in Catania. “So, Pippo, what are you going to do? Are you going to say yes”? Fava said yes. He returned to Catania with the refound enthusiasm of his youth, when he thought that this would always be his city. But Catania had changed. It had crumbled from the inside. It had been transformed by too many corrupt deals and too many wars. Fava set an ambitious objective for the newspaper he edited: to be on par with the other Sicilian newspapers. He put together a team of young kids who were all barely more than teenagers, university students with fire in their bellies who were waiting for the opportunity to become journalists. They were as idealistic and relentless as their editor, and like him, convinced that that they were unstoppable. Even in Catania. Even on the brink of a mafia war that would eventually leave the city’s streets strewn with dozens of corpses. And with this fledgling staff of journalists, the newspaper headed by Fava began to talk about that system openly, to name those who could not be named, to reconstruct the facts. They didn’t see this as merely a challenge. For these young Sicilians, or carusi, and their editor, this was the only way they knew how to do their job. The first name they printed on the front page was Nitto Santapaola’s. Santapaola was a well-respected man in Catania, the guest of honour at all the important parties, listened to, protected, and admired by all the city’s notables: prominent businessmen, police prefects, constables, and councillors. But in Palermo, Santapaola was just a mafia boss, one of the most ruthless, the protagonist - Kalashnikov in hand – of one of the bloodiest settling of accounts in the history of Cosa Nostra in Sicily. And then, because of Pippo Fava, the invisible border line separating the two Sicilies risked disappearing forever. Fava pushed ahead, and so did the newspaper. His reporting included more and more details, names, and facts. Then, one day, the editors threw up their hands, and in the middle of the night, they went to the publisher’s office. The typesetters were told to stop working, and the next day, Fava was fired. But he didn’t give up. Together with his band of youngsters, who had formed a cooperative, he founded the monthly magazine I Siciliani: one hundred and sixty pages, coated paper, with a glossy, elegant, black cover. Below the masthead, a photograph of four men in grey pinstripe suits raising a toast: Catania’s most prominent businessmen, who until the day before had remained omnipotent and generally invisible. The lengthy article that opened that first issue of Pippo Fava’s magazine was dedicated to them: to their forays, political protection, dangerous relationships, and their cosy friendships with Santapaola, the mafioso. Everything. This time, things couldn’t be solved with a call to the publisher; there weren’t any publishers this time. I Siciliani flew off the shelves. The first edition sold out in two hours. Four more reprints, all sold out as well. Maybe those pages didn’t have many friends, but they did have lots of readers, who were even more loyal. The newspaper grew, becoming bolder and bolder each month. It aired plenty of dirty laundry, but it also described a generous and rebellious Sicily, a place of possibilities. 7 For Fava’s carusi, I Siciliani was a baptism. For Pippo Fava, it was an inevitable dance with death. Which took the form of the unflinching eye of a young assassin the age of his son Claudio, with a 7.65 Browning in his hand. Five shots to the back of the head on the evening of January 5, 1984. This was how Pippo Fava died. 8 Director’s notes Freedom of press has again become an urgent issue at the heart of our political debate, and with it, the need for journalists to free themselves from increasingly powerful and pervasive conditioning. Which is why Pippo Fava’s story, personally and professionally, is so exemplary and moving to me. Freedom of press and of opinion was a true mission for Pippo Fava. He believed that journalists should be free of political and economic conditioning and not be beholden to anyone in power. To achieve this goal, Fava founded an extraordinary newspaper, I Siciliani, which remains a shining light in the history of Italian journalism, both for its content and its layout. He taught his students (the carusi) the value of rigorous investigation, of working on the quality of one’s writing, and exercising one’s critical skills at all times. At a time when journalism is under enormous pressure, also because of the astronomical growth of social media, which threatens to wrest authority over the “news” from journalism, the story of Fava and his band of youngsters offers us a path that is viable still today and tomorrow as well, one that believes in the inalienable principle of freedom of the press and of opinion.