Ginettaccio like Muhammad Ali: a man of peace and universal values, who do not bargain and orient their lives at the cost of any risk. Two runners (including the former pro Ten Dam) today retrace the 180 km from Florence to Assisi that Gino traveled with false documents to save the Jews
Gino Bartali as Muhammad Ali. A man of peace and universal values, which do not bargain and guide one’s life. At the cost of any risk, even of being shot by the Nazis if caught with false documents to save the Jews in the bicycle frame. It is the heart of the new film that will be released tomorrow in the Netherlands, “Gino Bartali-Il postino della pace”. Two Dutchmen, the former professional Laurens Ten Dam and Stefan Bolt, director of Live Slow Ride Fast Media (a young company dedicated to the promotion of bicycles), are today redoing the 180 kilometers between Florence and Assisi: the same dirt roads that Bartali had traveled in the his more than 50 trips, the pivot of an organization that made it possible to save over 800 Jews.
It is the journey, today, in the places of Bartali, his countryside, the taverns and bars, the plaques on the buildings that recall a story that emerged only after the death of the great champion. New eyes, light eyes, which are amazed to rethink what was done almost 80 years ago. The film opens with a symbolic place of cycling: the Ghisallo church, where Bartali’s relics, jerseys and bikes are kept. A phone call, Gino answers to Ponte a Ema, and then here’s a delicate interview with Bartali, the great lion who takes off his shirt to show the pacemaker.
And then the stationary bike with which he still rides, among the bikes of his victories. It is as if Gino revealed his soul, the most authentic good. Because then he shows his private chapel that he kept at home and was dedicated to Saint Therese of the Child Jesus and the book of masses that he wrote down in a diary. Bartali who talks about Coppi: “I can’t wait to meet him in Heaven”, “I raised him up, he was a poor farmer, he was worse off than me, I was so sorry”.
All aspects that we then find in the film, with the house in Ponte a Ema, the relationship with his brother Giulio who died in the race, the chair that Gino kept in the cemetery in front of Giulio’s grave: he climbed over the fence and sat down to tell him about racing and cycling. . The Museum of the memory of Assisi, the machine of the Brizzi printers who secretly printed the false documents that Bartali then brought to the Jews, the Monastery of San Damiano where the nuns were waiting for him.
Bartali Righteous among the Nations, the champion of faith, the good that is done but not said, the medals hang on the soul and not on the jacket. Altruism in its highest form. A lesson in history and humanity that should never be forgotten.
March 10, 2022 (change March 10, 2022 | 15:25)
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