The film

REPORT ON THE FILM “PERLASCA, AN ITALIAN HERO”

The film “Perlasca, an Italian hero” can well fit in the theme of the Comenius project on freedom of religion and conscience. The theme of freedom of religion is dealt with in the theme of the persecution of the Hebrews. The persecution of the Hebrews began as persecution of the Hebrew race but, since it was quite difficult to define the “Hebrew race”, it soon turned into the persecution of those who professed the Hebraism. The profession of Hebraism was only permitted in the delimited boundaries of the ghetto, and in the film we can see it .clearly at least in two scenes.

More interesting, though, is the theme of freedom of conscience exemplified by the inner growth of Perlasca, who, from an unconditioned support to fascism, turns to a critical view of it and, in the circumstances of the film, he doesn’t hesitate to help and to save the lives of thousands of Hebrews (about 5218) risking his own life and contradicting the laws of that dictatorship which he had supported and for which he even went to fight in the Spanish Civil War. At a certain point in the film Farkas, the lawyer of the Spanish Embassy asks him why he went to fight in the Spanish Civil War and Perlasca answers: “I wanted to fight communism. I read that communists burnt churches and I went to Spain. I think people have the right to pray wherever and however they want and what I thought once about churches is the same that I think now about the synagogues”.

This sentence well expresses both the themes we are talking about: the right to profess whatever religion we want, but also the right to act according to our conscience, even if the ideas we have believed in set us in contradiction with ourselves causing us a crisis of conscience.

FILM FILE

TITLE: PERLASCA: AN ITALIAN HERO

YEAR:2002

DIR/PROD:Alberto Negrin

COUNTRY: Italy

LANGUAGE: Italian with English Subtitles

TIME: 123 minutes

WRITERS: Enrico Deaglio, Sandro Petraglia, Stefano Rulli.

The film “Perlasca, an Italian hero” was shot by Alberto Negrin in year 2002 and it was a co-production of Rai fiction, France 2 and Focus film. The film tells the true story, bringing it to light again after it has been forgotten for many years, of Giorgio Perlasca, an Italian man who was in Budapest as employee of an Italian firm that imported meat for the Italian army in 1944 when the Hungarian Nazis came to power with the help of the German Nazis. He, pretending to be the Spanish Consul, succeeded in saving 5200 Hungarian Hebrews. The main character, Perlasca, is masterly starred by Luca Zingaretti, one of our best modern actors; but other very talented actors are Amanda Sandrelli, playing Madga Levi, one Hungarian Hebrew woman, Franco Castellano, playing Adam, another Hebrew fugitive, Giuliana Loiodice, playing the secretary of the Spanish Embassy Madame Tournè, Jerome Hanger, playing Farkas, the lawyer of the Spanish Embassy, Mathilda May, playing the Hungarian countess Eleonora and Gyorgy Cserhalmi, playing the Nazi tenent Bleiber.

The film is set in Hungary during the last months of the Second World War, when the Arrow Crosses, the Hungarian Nazis, take the power overthrowing the previous government supported by the German Nazis; they begin persecuting and deporting to Germany thousands of Hungarian Hebrews. Perlasca, who is in Budapest as an employee of an Italian firm that imports meat for the Italian Army, has not adhered to The Italian Social Republic, but he has remained faithful to Monarchy, so he is searched by the Arrow Crosses and tries to run away. In his flight he is helped by a Hungarian countess, Eleonora, who addresses him to the clinic of doctor Balash, one of her friends who tries to help and save the lives of some Hebrew people. Also Perlasca takes shelter in this clinic and here he knows a group of fugitive Hungarian Hebrews among which there are Magda Levi and her daughter Lili. Found again by the Arrow Crosses, he has to run away again when he suddenly remembers of a document issued to him by General Franco as expression of thankfulness for his taking part in the Spanish Civil War. In this document it is stated that whenever and under whatever circumstances he should need it, he can ask help to Spain.

After having recovered this document, together with the money he had been given by his firm, he goes to the Spanish Embassy where he gets at once the Spanish citizenship, a legal passport and an letter accrediting him as official of the Spanish Embassy. At this point Perlasca asks that even Magda Levi and her daughter should be sheltered in one of the protected houses of The Spanish Embassy, which were considered extraterritorial areas and where a lot of Hungarian Hebrews had sheltered (there were other protected houses of other nations in Budapest, such as Sweden, Portugal, Switzerland and the Vatican City).

From now on, Perlasca will not be able to skirk what he feels to be his duty, that is to say, to save as many Hebrews as possible. When the Arrow Crosses in one of their raids, seize the Hebrews in the Spanish protected house in order to deport them to Germany, Perlasca doesn’t hesitate to corrupt the officer in charge of this operation using the money of his firm, as well as he corrupts another officer in order to rescue other Hebrews (among which there is Magda Levi) from a torture house. When the Spanish Ambassador leaves Budapest and takes refuge in Switzerland, since leaving the Spanish Embassy open in Hungary would have meant to acknowledge the Nazi government, Perlasca doesn’t hesitate to pretend to be the Spanish Consul in order to protect the Hebrews of the protected houses from the Arrow Crosses. In a meeting with the Hungarian Nazi commander Vaina he also obtains the safety for all the Sephardic Hebrews of the protected houses (this means the Hebrews of Spanish stock, to whom the Spanish citizenship was granted, from whatever countries they came from, according to the Rivera’s law of 1924 made to compensate the Hebrews of the exodus from Spain during the reign of queen Isabel 400 years ago). After having obtained this, he together with the secretary of the Spanish Embassy write as many letters as possible that accredit the Spanish citizenship to the Hebrews of the protected houses so that they can save as many of them as possible.

Even when at the end Perlasca obtains a permit from the Spanish Ambassador in Switzerland that allows him to leave Budapest, he decides to remain there because he wants to try and bring as many Hebrews as possible with him. At this point of the film things come to a head. The Russians are conquering Budapest and are heavily bombing it. In the city anarchy reigns. Some powerful persons escape, some bands of Nazis terrorize the city committing the last crimes against the Hebrews. Perlasca comes to know of the criminal plan of commander Vaina. He wants to mine the ghetto, burn it and kill who tries to escape from it firing at him. Perlasca succeeds in avoiding this by negotiating the safety of the Hebrews with the safety of commander Vaina and his family when the Russians enter the city. When at the end the Russians come, Perlasca, who has saved thousands of Hebrews, has to run away again, because both as Italian and as Spanish he is not well-liked by the Russians. The Hungarian major Gluckmar tells him in one of the final scenes of the film: “Perlasca, the winners change, but you’re always on the wrong side”. Particularly touching are the words pronounced by Lili Levi, one of the people saved by him, at the end of the film.” From the first time I saw him doing what he was doing I thought of him as one of the thirty-six Righteous Men. It’s a story from the Bible that my father used to tell me when I was a child; it says that in every moment in the history of the world there are thirty-six Righteous Men and it’s because of them that God doesn’t destroy the world. Nobody knows who they are and they themselves don’t know that, but they do recognize the suffering of other human beings and they carry this burden on their back”

At the end of the film the last words of a television interview made to the real Perlasca are reported. The interview was made by Giovanni Minoli, a journalist who dedicated a programme to this man, bringing to light his gestures, unknown to most of the people until then. Perlasca says: “ I’d like young people to be interested in this story only because they should think about what happened in those days and what may still happen today so that they might be able, in case, to reject and react to a violence like that”.

Teacher

Anna Bartolucci

Istituto Comprensivo di

SANT’ANGELO IN VADO(PU) - ITALY

see the poster

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