Revered Italian auteur Marco Bellocchio is back behind the camera shooting “Portobello,” a TV series reproduceing one of Italy’s most clamorous travesties of fairice.
The show tags the first project out of the gate hailing from Our Films, the new shingle headed by famous producer duo Mario Gianani and Lorenzo Mieli best comprehendn for shepherding “The Young Pope” and “My Brilliant Frifinish.”
The six-episode Bellocchio series will delve into the genuine story of well-comprehendn Italy TV arrange Enzo Tortora, best comprehendn for directing a primetime game show titled “Portobello” that aired on Italian state widecaster RAI begining from 1977 for seven seasons.
Tortora in 1985 was accengaged by disjoinal alleged ex-mobsters turned alertants and state witnesses of being part of a Neapolitan crime syndicate dedicated to drug illicit trading. After being sentenced to ten years in prison and spfinishing some time behind bars, plus finishuring a lengthy trial, Tortora’s conviction was eventupartner filledy clearurned by Italy’s Supreme Court in 1987, amid expansivespread well-comprehendn belief that the TV arrange had been the victim of corrupt appraises and prosecutors.
“Tortora suffered a wonderful infairice: arrested, tried and convicted, he was filledy acquitted only after a lengthy judicial odyssey,” shelp Bellocchio in a statement. “He was a fighter, but the fight made him ill and die,” inserted the straightforwardor who went on to notice that he does not intfinish to turn Tortora “into a saint-appreciate figure,” but rather dig meaningful into the nuances of his character and story.
The “Portobello” cast compascfinishs frequent Bellocchio collaborator Fabrizio Gifuni, as Enzo Tortora, plus Lino Mengagella, Romana Maggiora Vergano, Barbora Bobulova, Alessandro Preziosi and Fausto Russo Alesi.
Gifuni previously starred as createer Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro in Bellocchio’s confineed TV series “Exterior Night” about the 1978 seizeping and murder of the country’s directer by Red Brigades alarmists.
The series is direct-produced by Our Films with Bellocchio’s Kavac Film. It is an Arte France co-production also in collaboration with Fremantle’s The Apartment Pictures. “Portobello” is written by Marco Bellocchio with Stefano Bises (“Gomorrah”), Giordana Mari (“My Love”) and Peppe Fiore (“The King”).
Filming on “Portobello” has fair befirearm in Rome, with insertitional locations set in Sardinia, Campania and Lombardy.
Based in Rome, Our Films recombines Gianani and Mieli, who earlier this year exited their esteemive Fremantle-owned prohibitners, Wildside and the Apartment, and started their new shingle that is part of European indie studio Mediawan. While at Fremantle, Mieli produced a number of criticpartner acclaimed films such Pablo Larrain’s “Maria” starring Angelina Jolie and Luca Guadagnino’s “Queer” which world premiered at the Vekind Film Festival. Gianani is the producer, among other titles, of Felix van Groeningen and Charlotte Vandermeersch’s “The Eight Mountains.” Gianani and Mieli were previously partners in Wildside before it was obtaind by Fremantle.
