Revisiting my conversation with screenwriter Stefano Rulli about his film on Italian hero Giorgio Perlasca
The made for TV docu-drama is a popular genre of filmmaking that has immortalized some of the most influential people in Italian history. Most of these made-for- TV movies are shown throughout Italy on Rai Uno. However, some do reach beyond the border through Rai Italia, Italy's International network, to provide us with a fascinating look into Italian history. Stefano Rulli (far right) at the Festa del Cinema di Roma, 2016 With that said, enter Giorgio Perlasca, Stefano Rulli and Sandro Petraglia. Giorgio Perlasca has been described as a fascist who saved Jews. Stefano Rulli and Sandro Petraglia are the filmmakers who told his story. During the fall of Mussolini in 1943, Giorgio Perlasca was working for an Italian importer in Budapest, Hungary. When Italians residing in the country were urged home, Perlasca refused, on the grounds that he did not want to live under German occupation in Italy. He stayed in Budapest and found work at the Spanish envoy, Angel Sanz-Briz. He,...