Reviews

This movie is a tribute to the real Daniele Barilla on whom the story is based. Again Giusepppe Fiorella(Il Grande Torino,Il Bambino sull'Acqua) is excellent as he portrays with emotion and empathy the suffering of an innocent man imprisoned for 7 seven years. It shows the degradation he suffers at the hands of inmates but he maintains his integrity and he is helpless to halt the break down of his family and his business. It is a lengthy movie but it is well worth watching if just to see justice being observed. There are plenty of movie about justice gone awry and heaps of US crime shows but this is effective in its realism.

The stars of the movie are Giuseppe Fiorello as Lorenzo and Vittoria Belvedere as Antonia who are parents of Valentino, a little boy who has a severe form of asthma so much so that he is to be supervised and medicated daily. Vlentino has an attack at school brought on by the detergents used by the cleaner and this leads to the schools administration and the parents requesting that Valentino no longer attend the school as he is a difficult case. Antonia is a proud woman who races around on a motor bike and the locals regard her with contempt and see her as haughty and headstrong. They take Valentino out for a day on the water and he is so well that Antonia has the idea that they should build a boat and live on the water so that their son no longer has attacks. The movie follows their journey as they set about accomplishing this desire and the obstacles they face. But Antonia must face her pride which ostracizes her from the locals. She faces the townspeople in a church and begs them for their help so that her son can be well and grow up free of hospital stays. The locals see her then as a mother who is doing what she can for the love of her only son and their hardness and perception of her chances to one of admiration and understanding. The locals all pitch in and the boat is put on the water and everyone is there to see them off. the film closes with a footnote that the real child whose story is the basis of this movie has been on the water for the last two years and has suffered no further attacks and attends satellite school. It is movie full of emotion and feeling. the young child who plays Valentino, Mattia D'Alessio is excellent and it is a delight to hear a young child speak Italian.

I had never heard about this momentous event in Italy's soccer history. This team known as "I Torri" were famous as they had proved themselves to be unbeatable. It is a story that captivates as we follow the life of a young Angelo who dreams of one day playing with his favorite team, I Torri. The story is recounted in retrospect where we are first introduced to the old Angelo who is approached by a reporter to talk about the sad event of the death of an entire team of highly talented players. As Angelo relives the story we the viewers are transported into the world of post war Torino and observe the events of that fateful day emerge. As well as that we watch the family dynamics of Angelo's family who have moved to Torino from Naples to get work. Soccer mad Angelo attends the Liceo or college and proves himself to be a talented young player. He meets Susanna who is the daughter of the manager of I Torri. He tries out for the Giovani Torri or Young Torri and gets into the team. He gets close to his idol, the team captain, Valentino Mazzolo, portrayed with intensity and focus by Giuseppe Fiorelli. The team prepare for a match is Lisbon and Angelo is selected to go but a family crisis forces him to stay behind. The movie closes with the old Angelo going to the actual monument in Superge in Torino and saluting the team.