Tragica alba a Dongo (1950)
Director: Vittorio Crucillà – Screenplay: Ettore Camesasca [V. Crucillà] – Off-stage commentary: Vittorio Crucillà– Director of photography: Duilio Chiaradia - Music: Ferruccio Martinelli – Production: Emilio Maschera e Ugo Zanolla (National Film) – Manager’s assistants: Milli Bahar, Antonio Zanni - Country: Italy - Running time: 38’
Cast: Non-professional actors - including the De Maria husband and wife - Ivan Kiorofilian, Nino Poli
The film:
Tragica alba a Dongo is a dry and effective reconstruction of the final hours of Benito Mussolini; it is shot in the real places of the events, with non-professional actors who, in many cases, were witnesses to the real event. The film shows Mussolini’s attempt to escape across the border, his capture by a partisan brigade, the last night spent in the house of the couple of farmers De Maria, and finally the execution. The story is commented and contextualized by the voice over of the director Vittorio Crucillà. The faces of the actors who play the roles of Mussolini and Clara Petacci are never showed except fleetingly.
The film didn’t get the permission from the Ufficio Centrale per la Cinematografia, despite many attempts made during the early 50s. Also, the injunction of the Mussolini family to the production company definitely condemned the possibilities of distribution of the film in Italy.
The nitrate copy conserved at Museo Nazionale del Cinema di Torino, property of the family Paternò- Pelos, for decades kept with other family assets and recently found, might be the only available original print.
The film restoration:
The restoration of Tragica alba a Dongo was carried out by Museo Nazionale del Cinema di Torino from a black and white nitrate print 1.015 meters long. The film was digitized at 2K, it was cleaned and stabilized while the material’s vintage features of image and soundtrack were untouched.
The restoration was carried out in 2014 at L’Immagine Ritrovata in Bologna.
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