The Elisa Claps‘s case is one of the darkest and most debated episodes of the Italian crime chronicle; a story tied by a blood-red thread to Britain and the fate of another young woman, Heather Barnett.

Elisa Claps left home to go to Mass on a sunny Sunday morning in September 1993 in Potenza. From that moment on, no one would hear from her until her body was found 17 years later in the attic of the church where she was last seen alive. In November 2002 in Bournemouth, on the south coast of England, Heather Barnett, a single mother of two teenagers, is found on the ground, covered in blood, horribly mutilated.
On the day of her disappearance, Elisa Claps had an appointment with Danilo Restivo, a few years older than her, in the church where her body was later found. Danilo Restivo was also Heather Barnett’s neighbour, and the British police soon pinned their suspicions on him. But it took years to connect the two murders and convict the culprit. A fundamental role in this was played by the Claps family and, above all, by Gildo, Elisa’s older brother, who was 24 years old at the time of her death.

Recently, hosted by a national TV program in Italy, Gildo Claps has declared all his bitterness and anger towards how this case was handled by some powers at the time: “I feel so much bitterness and so much anger. The evidence against Danilo Restivo was consistent from the very first hours after Elisa’s disappearance. The background against him was well known to the police and the magistrate who conducted the investigation. This is the perfect manual for everything that doesn’t need to be done in a case of disappearance.”

Tobias Jones, a British writer living in Parma, reconstructs this tragic story in the book “Blood on the Altar” published in 2013. In 2014, the producer Ben Donald bought the rights and was introduced by Tobias to the Claps family. “The nine years I’ve been following this story are nothing compared to the time and tenacity of the Claps family. I was a young student living in Turin when Elisa disappeared; I followed this story from the beginning, I had to tell this story.”
Thus begins the work of tenacity that will lead to the realization of the 3-part fiction For Elisa – The Claps Case, a production by FastFilm SRL, Cosmopolitan Pictures Limited in collaboration with Rai Fiction and in association with ITV Studios, whose filming took place, for nine weeks in the city of Potenza.

Michele Zatta, head of Rai Fiction (producer of the teen-cult series just landed on MHz Choice The Sea Beyond), talking about the story of Elisa, points out that it is “a story that tells how in great difficulties, love allows us to go forward; a story that we all hope, with all our heart, can cross the borders of Italy and be seen everywhere because co-productions between Italy and Britain are very rare and this project is really a rare breed”.

This fiction “tells about the tenacity of the Claps family, the same tenacity that there was in those who wanted to make this series” explains Maurizio Tini of FastFilm SRL, “starting from Ben who began working on it nine years ago.” This tenacity has led to the realization of something unique because it is characterized “by a harmony that has been created both from the point of view of the artistic result, starting from the cast and their perfect conductor”, director Marco Pontecorvo, “both from a human point of view”.

And it is really difficult to imagine a different result when in the cast we read names like Gianmarco Saurino, in the role of Gildo Claps, Giacomo Giorgio (Ciro Ricci in The Sea Beyond) as Lorenzo Claps, younger brother of Gildo, Anna Ferruzzo (Elisa’s mother, Filomena Claps), Vincenzo Ferrera (Beppe in The Sea Beyond, as Antonio Claps), Rosa Diletta Rossi (Gildo’s girlfriend, Irene Nardiello), Francesco Acquaroli (Maurizio Restivo), Antonio Petrocelli (Don Mimì), Beniamino Marcone (Vito Eufemia), Giulio Della Monica (Danilo Restivo), Ludovica Ciaschetti (Elisa Claps), Katie McGovern (Heather Barnett), Lorenzo McGovern Zaini (Terry Barnett), Mia McGovern Zaini (Caitlin Barnett) and Vincent Riotta (Phil James).

A cast with Marco Pontecorvo at the helm. “I believe that one must get an idea of the story, of one’s character and should not try to follow it exactly, otherwise there is something false that is created. You just have to respect the story and the people who lived it, not mimic it. That’s why, it was great to meet them [the Claps family], but to get to know them during the production, not before, so we met when we already had a set idea of the characters that these guys fantastically interpreted. We all tried together, from the beginning, first on the script and then on set, to enter the story without making it a news story because this is not just a story of crime: it represents the desire for justice that, finally, with the tenacity that has been repeatedly emphasized, the Claps have managed to have; which is a hope for all of us. It starts as a drama, but it pushes us to take a step forward. We also worked on creating villains with nuances, and I think this is also very important because, if not, they would have been little hagiographic characters. In this way, it is easier for the viewer to enter into the story, see the characters, relive the events with them and, automatically, live the same emotions that we have experienced.”

Speaking of villains, Giulio Della Monica, told us how he built his character: “I worked with a psychologist to try to understand the profile of these entities that from monsters, became first entities and then, at a later time, they changed to human beings; human beings with billions of difficulties, of facets, fragile with too many questions to which I tried at first to answer, to fill that void. At one point, I recall the idea of the negative capability by Keats.” The English poet argued that in creative processes, one should have the ability to remain in a state of creative doubt, suspension of judgment, acceptance of the uncertainty and complexity of life and art; immerse oneself in the experience and accept the mystery, without trying to reduce everything to a logical or rational explanation, embrace the beauty and power of contradictions and uncertainties without the need to reach a definitive conclusion. “As absurd as it sounds, this aspect has been for me an occasion of great growth both professional and human, you realize that, as a human being, even if in an infinitesimal part, you have a point of contact with that human being there. I put a lot of heart into it because, when you play the bad guys, paradoxically, you have to want to triple the good you feel for them.”

Several times, Gildo Claps reiterated that, although in some cases it was necessary to bend the truth to the needs of the media, this fiction is “extremely adherent to reality”.
“I think it’s one of the fiction closest to real history as it happened; with very few concessions to the narrative register of a fiction, ever made. It’s hard to see your family’s tormented story in a film adaptation. I had many perplexities already when, about ten years ago I met Ben [Ðonald] through Tobias [Jones]; but I’m proud of this amazing cast. I felt on them the weight of the great responsibility of telling our story; a story of pain in which there is also so much good, a choral story in which people like Federica Sciarelli [Italian journalist and director of the historic Italian program that deals with unsolved cases of disappearance Chi l’ha visto? ] have made a difference, as I pointed out on September 12th, on the occasion of the thirtieth anniversary of Elisa’s death. As Marco [Pontecorvo] says, it is right not to trace the characters and, Vincenzo [Ferrera, who brought on the screen his being a father of a teenager as Elisa was at that time] is not dad, but I saw him again, especially in his tenderness with Elisa. Anna [Ferruzzo] is also not mum, but thanks to her work you have learned to know her. Mom is extraordinary in her determination and she is for me a continuous source of inspiration. For 30 years, I held on because I had this giant next to me, by my side who was my mom. I saw myself again in many aspects of Gianmarco’s acting [Saurino]. I am happy that Restivo is detained in the UK because I am convinced that, being there, at least he will serve all his 40 years and this, mind you, is not dictated by a desire for revenge because, in recent years I have taken a path that has extinguished, to some extent, my hatred.”

This story, unfortunately, has seen a new sorrow come upon the Claps family recently; in fact, despite strong doubts about the discovery of the body and the responsibilities of the clergy and despite the strong opposition of the family, on August 24th of this year, the church of the Holy Trinity of Potenza, where Elisa was killed and hidden, was reopened. No functions are celebrated inside but “a plaque was placed to celebrate the virtues of pedagogue of Don Mimì Sabia, who was the parish priest of that church back then and on whom heavy shadows weigh”.

The production wanted to pay Gildo Claps a fee for his advice on the script and on set. That amount will be invested in a project dear to Elisa. Elisa Claps’s dream was to graduate in medicine and to become part of MSF, therefore, will build in Congo a clinic that will bear her name. The compensation that would be due to Gildo Claps will lay the foundations of this project while Maurizio Tini and Ben Donald will contribute to its advancement with part of the profits that the fiction will begin to produce once broadcast.

I leave you with a touching post about this story that Giacomo Giorgio wrote on his Instagram page: “I wish myself, and all of us, that in the future this country can be a better place, a place of truth and justice. I believe in the power of cinema, I have believed in it since I was 6 years old, and I believe in the small/great power that this wonderful art has in seeking through dreams and imagination to change things. However, this is not just a staging, it is the true story of a 16-year-old Italian girl and her family. This is the story of 17 years of silence and injustice. I hope that this may increasingly be a bad memory because I do, even if “something is rotten in the state of Denmark”, as some would say, the human being is wonderful and sometimes with great ease we forget it. I recommend, and I hope that all the people, all of you who follow me, young and old, watch this series, and discover this story, not because I’m in it, not because there is an extraordinary cast, but because it is of fundamental importance as human beings to understand that silence no longer goes for any reason accepted by any kind of entity in this country… This story, especially at this time, deserves to be known and deepened, which for me has been a source of great pride and responsibility… I wait for you at the end, with a bitter taste in my mouth, to continue to fight and desire the truth for what still remains hidden, for the Claps family, for Elisa and for all the families of missing persons who are not lucky enough to be heard… I see no better way to celebrate all this than through cinema, emotions and many wonderful images… Thank you, Gildo Claps, your moving gaze while you were telling me about Elisa, has accompanied me all these months and I will never forget it. I hope to have lived up to this name, Luciano Claps, I put all my heart and my delicate attention into trying to give back as I could to this story, to Elisa, the dignity she deserves…I hope in a united Italy, in front of the screen, on October 24th”