'Secolo d'Italia' dedicates a special to Almerigo Grilz and the film 'Albatross'

A special dedicated to the figure of Almerigo Grilz and the film 'Albatross', inspired by his life. This is the way in which Secolo d'Italia - on the occasion of the release of the film in theaters - wanted to pay homage to the memory of the journalist from Trieste, the first Italian war correspondent to die in the field after the end of the Second World War, who wrote historic reports for the newspaper. "'Albatross' has arrived in theaters, the film by Giulio Base that tells the adventurous life of Almerigo Grilz: the first Italian war reporter killed in the field. A great 'non-conformist' journalist - we read in the introduction to the special - who also wrote reportages for Secolo d'Italia that have gone down in history, whose story has suffered for years the ostracism of ideological hatred".

The special - edited by Annamaria Gravino, Gloria Sabatini, Fernando Adonia and Cristina Di Giorgi - includes an interview with the director Giulio Base, who wrote and directed 'Albatross'; a two-voice conversation with the journalists Fausto Biloslavo and Gian Micalessin, who with Grilz created the Albatross press agency that gives its name to the film; an interview with the journalist Toni Capuozzo, who has always claimed the need to remember and respect that courageous colleague and in the film inspired the character of Vito, played by a masterful Giancarlo Giannini; an overview of Almerigo's collaboration with Secolo d'Italia, taken from the book on the 60 years of the newspaper signed by the then young reporter and now director, Antonio Rapisarda; a presentation of the documentary "Mission Mozambique 2025" on the journey undertaken by Biloslavo and Micalessin to place a plaque on the centuries-old tree under which, in the African country, Grilz's remains rest. And, of course, the review of Albatross, a beautiful and courageous film.

Grilz was shot dead in Mozambique, while documenting the conflict between the Renamo rebels and the Frelimo government. It was May 19, 1987 and he was 34 years old. He was a visionary, an innovator, a courageous man and professional, but he had what for many was and remains an original sin to be condemned with an obstinate damnatio memoriae: he had also been a militant of the FdG and a leader of the MSI. With Albatross and thanks to the commitment of those who have preserved and promoted his memory he definitively ceases to be 'the unknown envoy', as Toni Capuozzo defined him.

"Is Albatross a political film? It certainly is. The hot potato was burning precisely for this reason. If he had had any other attitude, there would have been no room for initial fears. I consider Albatross a small act of courage because there is a self-styled intelligentsia that always thinks like this: that I shouldn't have made this film. But Giannini gave me a valid suggestion: 'Futtitenn'", says Giulio Base in the interview, explaining that he feels "a partisan of reconciliation, it seemed like a good opportunity to try to make peace, to arrive at a normalization to stop thinking that someone embodies the black spectre. I wanted to propose a reflection on respect".

"He was certainly a good journalist, but strangely enough no one asks. People think of something else. But he was, indeed. He was an international market journalist, who wrote mainly for foreign newspapers. A full-time reporter. It makes me indignant that Italian journalism has not yet managed to consider him one of its own", are the words of Toni Capuozzo.

"Forty years ago Almerigo was the first to discover multimedia, the chain between video, photography and writing. Super 8 camera, still camera and notepad. He had the MSI buy him the cameras to go to Mozambique. And he was always the one to film the images of the parades, the congresses, an immense archive material", say Biloslavo and Micalessin, recalling the years in which with Grilz, in international journalism circles, they were called "crazy Italians". "When we began our adventure we were moved by a fire, beyond ideologies. If you have a dream and a passion you have to go forward in spite of everything and everyone", they conclude.