The love story between Francesca Morvillo and Giovanni Falcone, told by Simona Izzo and Ricky Tognazzi, in the film Francesca and Giovanni is based on the book by journalist Felice Cavallaro, Francesca: story of a love in time of war.
The film begins in 1979, in a Palermo shaken by mafia attacks. Francesca (Ester Pantano) is married to Giuseppe (Claudio Crisafulli) and is a deputy prosecutor at the juvenile court in Palermo. One of her trickiest cases is an alleged parricide: the accused, Dino (Leon Muraca), is arrested at the port.
She meets Giovanni Falcone (Primo Reggiani) at a lunch, staged at an outdoor table overlooking the evocative panorama of the Sant’Elia cove, in Santa Flavia, just kilometres from the Sicilian capital. Sant’Elia and Porticello provide the locations for the seafront and the village of Mondello.
The many locations in Palermo include: the Kalsa neighbourhood and the Basilica della Magione where Giovanni has a conversation with Alfredo (Giovanni Arezzo), Francesca's brother, in the cloister. A building in via Principe di Belmonte was chosen to serve as the magistrates’ home, they actually lived in via Notarbartolo. Scenes at the Palermo airport were filmed at Boccadifalco airport.
Some scenes were set in Rome, during the time when Falcone had an assignment there: the couple walk and converse freely near the portico of Ottavia.
The stretch of the A29 highway, where the Capaci massacre took place on May 23, 1992, when Giovanni Falcone, Francesca Morvillo and three protection agents lost their lives, was reconstructed on the A19, on the carriageway towards Catania, at Termini Imerese.
The love story between Francesca Morvillo and Giovanni Falcone, told by Simona Izzo and Ricky Tognazzi, in the film Francesca and Giovanni is based on the book by journalist Felice Cavallaro, Francesca: story of a love in time of war.
The film begins in 1979, in a Palermo shaken by mafia attacks. Francesca (Ester Pantano) is married to Giuseppe (Claudio Crisafulli) and is a deputy prosecutor at the juvenile court in Palermo. One of her trickiest cases is an alleged parricide: the accused, Dino (Leon Muraca), is arrested at the port.
She meets Giovanni Falcone (Primo Reggiani) at a lunch, staged at an outdoor table overlooking the evocative panorama of the Sant’Elia cove, in Santa Flavia, just kilometres from the Sicilian capital. Sant’Elia and Porticello provide the locations for the seafront and the village of Mondello.
The many locations in Palermo include: the Kalsa neighbourhood and the Basilica della Magione where Giovanni has a conversation with Alfredo (Giovanni Arezzo), Francesca's brother, in the cloister. A building in via Principe di Belmonte was chosen to serve as the magistrates’ home, they actually lived in via Notarbartolo. Scenes at the Palermo airport were filmed at Boccadifalco airport.
Some scenes were set in Rome, during the time when Falcone had an assignment there: the couple walk and converse freely near the portico of Ottavia.
The stretch of the A29 highway, where the Capaci massacre took place on May 23, 1992, when Giovanni Falcone, Francesca Morvillo and three protection agents lost their lives, was reconstructed on the A19, on the carriageway towards Catania, at Termini Imerese.
Adler Entertainment, Orange Media, Oscar Generale Productions
Sicily, 1979. Palermo is shaken by mafia attacks. Francesca Morvillo is called to the juvenile court for a case of parricide. Fifteen-year-old Dino, who has grown up in a place where the most brutal crimes are committed, has killed his father in front of his mother. Faced with the silence of a mother willing to sacrifice her son in the name of omertà, Francesca remains faithful to her values, fighting a backwards judicial system that prefers to punish minors instead of educating them and offering them a different future. As her professional career experiences a moment of crisis, Francesca meets Giovanni Falcone. The two magistrates immediately share a strong chemistry, which inevitably attracts them like magnets, and a very robust system of values. So begins a relationship of love and shared everything that will see them united until the last moments of their lives.
