When you say the fugitive that becomes the anatomy of an obsession. «It has been thirty-five years since Cesare Battisti convicted of an armed terrorist group manages to escape the Italian justice…». The voice is that, gentle, of a young police officer stuck behind the desk of a police station bruised, over time, by a shower of refused extraditions and dashed hopes of justice.
That voice is also one of the narrators of Manhunt – Cesare Battisti a life on the run i.e. the docufiction co-produced by Rai Fiction e Indigo Stories for the direction of Graziano Conversano aired tonight on Raitre (and exclusively viewed by us). It recounts the end of the eternal flight and the arrest of the former multi-murderous terrorist Battisti.
UP TO BOLIVIA
And it does so through the dry and syncopated narration of a major international police operation that starts from Milan and arrives in Bolivia. Passing from the years of the golden Parisian fugitive among intellectual frissons; and crossing, in a white SUV, the great river plains of Brazil where Lula inexplicably forbade the extradition of the terrorist. And finally, crossing the border with Bolivia among corrupt soldiers who search it and count the wads of money. And finally, Battisti always trusts in the injustice of men to test his degree of impunity spread over four murders (always proudly admitted): an impunity on which his fans had built a sort of real legend.
The docufiction on the fugitive–which arrived after the homologous experiment on General of the Church, always in Rai- is a mix between real news and authentic interviews with the policemen who have woven the patient investigative strategy. To these are added the reconstructions with actors including Andrew Cagliesi who plays the protagonist. Which protagonist, wearing «a thousand masks» – as he says Carlo Bonini who followed the story as a reporter – at least until 25 July 79 he was a «featherweight of terrorism». Battisti, in practice, was a nerd of the crime. He moved in a “path of common crime” chasing dreams of glory, pouring the proceeds of his robberies to the cause of the Pac, of the Armed Proletarians for Communism. Then here’s the shot of our career. The murder of the jeweler arrives in Milan on 16 February 79 Pierluigi Torregiani guilty of killing a proletarian robber who was trying “to reappropriate what capitalism had taken from him”. Torregiani – who lives again in a moving memory of his son Alberto who ended up nailed to a wheelchair – was considered by Pac a «militiaman»; and Battisti, to make a career in the terrorist group founded by Arrigo Cavallina (present here), killed him like a dog and threw his remains to the cause. The docufiction on Battisti demonstrates a rare sense of timing.
It is programmed by Viale Mazzini precisely on the days when the France blocks, in the last judicial instance, theextradition for our terrorists welcome guests there; and thus shatters the victims’ hopes of justice. This is not a bad production. It traces the decades spent by Battisti between Europe and South America, controversies, interceptions and tailings, during which the terrorist has always found a way to escape justice. Until January 12, 2019. That year he was arrested in Santa Cruz de la Sierra by a special Interpol team made up of Italian and Bolivian policemen. At the time of his arrest, Battisti was 64 years old: he had been on the run more or less since December 13, when the Supreme Court of Brazil, a country where he had lived since 2004, had ordered his arrest in view of a possible extradition to Italy, denied in preceded, precisely, by the former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
Particularly important is the part of the story on the special cultural pass Battisti had in the Parisian period, after the publication of the Gallimard noir novels. Novels probably written with the bestseller Fred Vargas to act as a lover, muse and companion, while the terrorist, elevated to the rank of art, shamelessly attests: “My role as an intellectual was a guarantee with the French government, for this reason nobody hunted me down”. Hence also the controversy dragged on over the years between Italy and France due to the pro-terrorist doctrines of Mitterrand e Chirac.
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEWS
In support of the narrative, exclusive material provided by the police stands out: interviews with investigators and documents that reconstruct the criminal history of Battisti and his inaction. The first part of the film seems to incline complacently towards the figure of «red and cursed hero(Battisti with Vargas tenderly enthralled, Battisti dancing with an old woman, Battisti at his desk who looks like Ugo Foscolo). But in the second part, here’s the turning point: which lies in transforming Battisti from a hired criminal into the monster he really is. A total terrorist without a shadow of repentance. Carlo Bonini speaking of him says: “Since you can deceive everyone once, but you can’t deceive everyone all the time, even Cesare Battisti knew his nemesis”. Which is made from the olbò that brings it back to Italy from Barsile. In itself not a bad product, but very cold to touch and empathy. This is a fiction that takes nothing away and adds nothing. Punctual, but cold and soulless…