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WHEN BEING ITALIAN WAS A CRIME

Two-part TV miniseries Il Duce Canadese tells the story of thousands of Italians who were imprisoned during the Second World War after Canada declared war on Mussolini's Italy

THE GAZETTE
Brenden Kelly
May 1, 2004

Photo: Actor Dino Tavarone (left) and producer Claudio Luca stroll through
Jean Talon market in the Little Italy district Wednesday.
 

Il Duce Canadese, le Mussolini canadien is a project close to the heart of Claudio Luca. The Montreal producer has spent 10 years on the development and making of the four-hour miniseries, which premieres Sunday night, May 2nd on Radio Canada and wraps the following Sunday.

The drama focuses on a shameful moment in Canadian and Quebec history - the internment of thousands of Italian-Canadians during the Second World War.

Canadians of Italian origin were rounded up in June 1940, after Canada declared war on Mussolini's Italy and many spent years in camps, even though no charges were laid against them. Most of the Montrealers were taken to the Petawawa internment camp near Ottawa.

Luca, who was born in Italy, arrived in Canada in 1953 at the age of  8. He grew up in Montreal's Italian community where he heard the stories about those dark days in the early 1940s. Luca feels it's important to revive memories of these events, particularly given the fact that the Canadian government has never issued an official apology for arresting so many innocent people.

"There's a guy, Antonio Capobianco, who's 91 today and who was arrested," said Luca, whose previous productions include The Boys of  St. Vincent and The Last Chapter. "His brother was in the Canadian army at the time, and Antonio was working for the Liberal Party. Yet he was  arrested. He did time at the camp in Petawawa, which was why we invited him to the set when we were shooting the Petawawa scenes.

This is a guy who's been waiting more than 50 years for the Canadian government to apologize. He's lived his entire life with a criminal record and, before he dies, he'd like them to erase his fingerprints from the police files.

"Imagine you arrive in this country and everything is going fine. Then from one day to the next, you're arrested. You have to live with that for the rest of your life. You're always wondering when you're going to be arrested again."

Il Duce Canadese was shot in English last year in and around Montreal, but it will make its debut in dubbed French on Radio Canada. The original English version will play on CBC in the fall. It was CBC, not Radio Canada, that originally developed the miniseries with Luca, and he says to not read any conspiracy theories into it premiering later on CBC. It was simply a matter of different scheduling decisions by the two sister networks. (Obviously it would be hard for CBC to run it this month given its prime time is dominated by playoff hockey.)

The miniseries stars many of the city's (and the country's) finest Italian-Canadian actors, including Tony Nardi, Marina Orsini, Dino Tavarone and hot up-and-comer Gianpaolo Venuta. Nardi, Orsini and Tavarone dubbed their own voices in French.

The drama was written by Universite de Montreal history prof and scriptwriter Bruno Ramirez, the co-writer of the acclaimed flick Caffe Italia, Montreal, and directed
by seasoned Montreal filmmaker Giles Walker.

Ramirez's script tackles this controversial slice of Canadian history via the story of a fictional family, the Alvaros. Angelo (Nardi) and his wife, Sara (Orsini), run a small, struggling bakery in Montreal's Little Italy, and Angelo decides to join the local fascist group because he thinks it's a good way to develop contacts in the community and sell more bread. Their teenage son Mario (Venuta) flirts with the
fascist group in an effort to try to nab a better music education.

The notion is that the family is essentially apolitical and anything but hard-core fascist idealogues. Sara's father, Turi (Tavarone), however, is dismayed by their fascist ties, and he makes his views loud and clear, which does not endear the old man to his son-in-law.

"It was a magnificent part," said Tavarone. "Turi was really ahead of his-time. He sees through the people who are fighting for power, and he tries to wake up the people around him to see things the way he does. He doesn't believe in fascism and thinks wars are just destructive. He's the voice of conscience in the mini-series."

Though these events took place more than 60 years ago, Luca firmly believes it's a story that remains relevant today.

"I think of what happened with Arabs after 9/11," said Luca. "They're being treated like they're all guilty. It's a story that keeps repeating itself."

Il Duce Canadese, le Mussolini canadien airs on CBFT-2 tomorrow at 8 p.m. The second two-hour instalment will air on the same channel on Sunday, May 9, at 8 p.m.

RAA Note: I most enthusiastically applaud and commend your project, but I respectfully disagree that a number of Muslims having a jaundiced eye pointed in their direction is anything similar to 600,000 Italian Americans in the USA having to register as Enemy Aliens, Thousands Interred, Thousands being Forcibly Evacuated, Thousands Losing their Jobs, Thousands Losing their Homes and Businesses, and ALL treated as Criminals with all their homes searched.

There were many ridiculous cases, but I will never forget that of the 90+ year old bed ridden man in permanently poor health, being evacuated from his home as a Security Risk!!!
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