“Virus trafficker”, Anna Foglietta brings to the cinema the investigation that overwhelmed the virologist Ilaria Capua (later acquitted) – time.news

by time news
from Valerio Cappelli, sent to Turin

Director Costanza Quatriglio: «A story that concerns all women». The actress: “The researcher told me it’s a fair film”






“In the name of the Italian people …”. And then it was her, Ilaria Capua, ending up under the microscope, accused of being an unscrupulous woman, “of having provided viral strains under the counter to pharmaceutical companies to get rich, a trafficking that would have spread very dangerous viruses”. Greedy, profiteer. A perfect monster. “A criminal mind.” Ilaria Capua herself says so in the book from which Costanza Quatriglio based the film “Virus trafficker» which led to the Turin Film Festival, and in cinemas from the 29th: «An incredible story of justice and struggle that affects all women. But there is also the happiness of working in a laboratory ».

Anna Foglietta, the protagonist, met the virologist at the beginning of the shoot, «in order not to be conditioned, he told me that it is a fair film. There are men who see the beauty of women and not their talent. I don’t want to masculinize myself ». And Capua: «Female leadership can exist, it is often recognized. My research group fell apart after the investigation and did not give Italy what it would need most in the pandemic. But it is true that I have reached my most important goals here ».

There is a happy ending to this story of science and justice bitter. The “big deal of epidemics” turned out to be a big mistake. Illegal vaccine trafficking: acquitted because the fact does not exist. We are used to seeing Ilaria explaining Covid and variants. Yet there was a time when he risked ‘life imprisonment. A successful woman, a “bulky” researcher; became deputy of Civic Choice. Overexposed to the media, “moreover female”, she found herself in the swamp of impotence. Ambition experienced as a fault. They offered her to work abroad, the government asked her to stay in Italy with an annual fund of 10 million. The Public Prosecutor’s Office had investigated it for facts of 2005, «forgery of seals» and «criminal association». But ten years had passed. The magistrate, to whom she spontaneously introduced herself, looked at her inscrutably, was interested in how vaccines were produced and marketed. It was intercepted. They also brought in her husband, Richard. “Anger merged with fear.” Ilaria felt fragile, isolated, alone. The weekly L’Espresso headlined on the front page: “Agreements between scientists and companies to produce vaccines and get rich.” “The front page monster destroys life, respectability and reputation,” says the virologist. The 5 Stars asked for his resignation. Gave her. A shattered career. Ilaria listed “a list of blunders, inaccurate reconstructions, falsehoods.” She went to Carofiglio, the former magistrate reassured her, “They have nothing, with the hypothesis of a crime of this gravity they would have arrested you.” Already. “What was the point of leaving me 10 years on the loose? An investigation with neither head nor tail ».

Today we improvise virologists, epidemiologists. Anna Foglietta, what do you think of the world of No Vax? “Most of them are afraid, they can’t just dismiss themselves as mad and exalted. There has been inadequate communication, people are disoriented and confused. But if the WHO says that my three children aged 10, 8 and 7 have to get vaccinated, I will do it “. Forced to leave Italy, Ilaria Capua continued her research among the palm trees of Florida, in an institute of excellence, from where she now speaks on TV, smiling.

November 27, 2021 (change November 27, 2021 | 9:30 pm)

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