Jerry Mastrodomenico, “Proud to have contributed to raising awareness of an extraordinary man like Calipari. Cinema is historical memory; we should treasure it. But many theaters are closing, and this signal is dramatic
On Tuesday, March 4, the premiere of the film ‘Il Nibbio’ (to be released on Thursday, March 6, directed by Alessandro Tonda) was held at the ‘Parco della Musica’ Auditorium in Rome. Based on a true story, ‘Il Nibbio’ recounts the exploits of Nicola Calipari (played by Claudio Santamaria), a Senior Executive of SISMI, who sacrificed his life to save journalist Giuliana Sgrena (played by Sonia Bergamasco) held hostage in Iraq by a terrorist cell. Twenty years later, the film honors the figure of Calipari, who was instrumental in the negotiations that led to Sgrena’s release. We had the opportunity to discuss the film with Jerry Mastrodomenico, the actor who plays Calipari’s antagonist, Giulio Carbonaro.
Yesterday was the premiere of the film ‘The Kite’ of which you are a part of the cast. How did you experience this evening and what were your emotions about seeing the film on the big screen?
“I was so curious to see the audience’s reaction. I knew the film would be good, and the confirmation was there. I have to say I expected it, because on the set you can tell whether the film is going to be good or not, and this was no exception. This was an opportunity to get confirmation of how emotional the film is, people were looking around at the end because they had the modesty of not wanting to be seen with shiny eyes: and I understand them because we are talking about a tragic story, about an incredible person who gave his life to save another.”
His character is the main antagonist of this film, which tells the story of Nicola Calipari’s murder. What do you think about this figure who is still shrouded in mystery? And what did the character you played leave you with?
“The figure of Calipari will unfortunately forever remain pervaded with mystery, because we will never have a ruling that will tell us what actually happened. The cassation has confirmed that for lack of jurisdiction there is the impossibility of arriving at a truth. Of Nicola Calipari I can say that he is certainly someone that each of us would want in our lives. He was a special man, touched by incredible courage and who always stood out for his humanity. My character precisely is the antagonist who struggles in the film to adopt a different course of action than Calipari, who always wanted to deal with terrorists. He, Carbonaro, on the other hand, argues against dealing and always tries to get in Calipari’s way. What has he left me with? I always tend to avoid being influenced by my characters. I try my hardest when I play them but then I always leave them without looking back, with the knowledge or not that I did a good job in playing them: that’s the beauty of my craft.”
How did participating in this project affect you professionally?
“This film leaves me with a huge life experience. I had the opportunity to work with extraordinary actors, starting with Claudio Santamaria, and with a great director like Alessandro Tonda. I take away with me the pride of having contributed to making even more known the figure of a great Italian like Nicola Calipari, who at the cost of his own life worked for our country with a courage worthy of few.”
The film certainly starts from a theme of social denunciation, it attempts to bring to light an unclear affair such as Calipari’s death. How important is the role of cinema in telling these facts, which no one would otherwise talk about?
“Cinema is especially crucial for this, it acts as a historical memory. The power of cinema is to remain forever, thanks to this future generations will have the opportunity to know the story of an incredible man. I would like to point out, however, that the film does not have a political intent, it does not try to find the culprits in the story. The most impossible attempt was made to honor the figure of a man who out of a sense of duty gave everything. To try to shift the focus of the film to the spasmodic search for a culprit would overshadow what he did that was incredible.”
Yet the current situation is not rosy for the Italian film scene. What are your thoughts on this?
“The problem is upstream, and I am not talking about this or the other government. The issue is that you view our industry as superfluous and relegate it to something deferrable: there has been a lack of laws to subsidize culture for a year and a half, out of a desire to change the pre-existing status. What is there for all to see is that film sets are decreasing exponentially. Not only is there no support to produce and generate work, but people prefer to spend money to pay unemployment to workers: this is crazy, man is made to work and not to receive subsidies.”
What do you think about the closure of movie theaters in Rome? How can cinema, harassed by competition from streaming platforms, be revived?
Actually partly thanks to streaming platforms in 21/22 there was overproduction. Thanks to this content there was a lot of work until 2023, but then an inexorable descent began. The discussion regarding theaters is closely related: with Covid many theaters, unable to produce, continued to generate losses and inexorably failed. Now we have managed to get an agreement with the Lazio region to prevent these theaters from being closed immediately, and to be given at least time to restart. We are trying to protect this cultural heritage by preventing these halls from being used as shopping centers or supermarkets, which we frankly do not need.”
Do you have any new projects after this film ends?
I don’t have any new projects on the horizon, except for a resumption of some audiobooks that I do when they are commissioned. Unfortunately, there is nothing else because all film productions are at a standstill, waiting for the laws we were talking about. The sets involve major investments and the producers rightly want guarantees: unfortunately everything is at a standstill, that’s the situation.”
