Alessio Vassallo protagonist of the tv-movie The winning thrust, taken from the book of the same name by the fencing champion Paolo Pizzo, produced by Rai Fiction and Anele
I know what it means to fight a disease. The actor Alessio Vassallo begins shooting the TV-movie The winning hittaken from the book of the fencing champion Paolo Pizzo, directed by Nicola Campiotti for the Rai Fiction production and Anele by Gloria Giorgianni who states: Tenacity and capacity. Pizzo’s emblematic history of social and human redemption. At 13, Pizzo discovered he had a brain tumor – says Vassallo, who in the series The young Montalbano played Mim Augello and in the TV movie The granting of the telephone from the novel by Camilleri was the protagonist Pippo Genuardi – he was already engaged in fencing, but one of the first symptoms that manifested himself was that, at times, his vision blurred. Since he was a boy he fought the disease, luckily he won it and then became a gold medal at the World Championship. I, around the age of 28, discovered that I have Crohn’s disease: an autoimmune disease that you have to live with. At first it was silent, exploding at the end of a long, painful love story that ended badly. A psychophysical breakdown, very debilitating in the private and sentimental sphere.
A serious problem, which he kept hidden? Yes, and here is the mistake. I have been hospitalized several times but, beyond my close relatives, I tended not to say what I had, I was ashamed. When I had the strength to talk about the disease I am suffering from, I was able to overcome the problem: the disease is still there, but I manage to control it, not to be sucked into it. it was a real liberation and this film was even more healing for me. An identification with Pizzo? What happened to him similar to what happened to me and, through its winning history, an important message can be transmitted to young people: if life puts us in front of difficult trials, we must not hide, but transform the problem into our strength. On the other hand, since I was a child I have had to face and overcome other tests. Being shy, I was bullied by certain schoolmates: I was considered a different person, they excluded me from parties, from football matches. A discrimination which other kids were also victims of, so much so that we had created our own football team.
A rematch? We were actually pretty scarce, the “losers” team. Until once one of us, the most bullied of all, is attacked during a match by an attack of anger and a kick to the ball so strong that he manages to hit the net: it was a goal! We screamed for joy. The same one I feel, now, in telling the adventure of Pizzo: he is the determination, the discipline made person and embodying it is not easy. He is the champion, I imitate him and I have been training for months in the gym with fencing masters. I feel the physical fatigue, I understand what it means to arrive home with leg cramps and not be able to sleep at night. And then Paolo, Sicilian like me, he from Catania, I from Palermo, repeats to me: “My friend, look ahead!”. He is truly an important example for the new generations.
September 24, 2022 (change September 24, 2022 | 20:50)
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