44° TORINO FILM FESTIVAL
DOCUMENTARIES COMPETITION
LE CASE SPEZZATE
by Tony Saccucci, Robert Tomić Zuber
Country: Italy
Year: 2026
Duration: 72'
Kevina Jama is a cave above Split, Croatia. In 1943, dozens of people were thrown into it, including Mate Čipčić Bragadin, who was killed by Tito’s partisans in front of his daughter Maria. In 2017, his granddaughters Lada and Anna Rivaroli, both in their late seventies, decided to seek the truth about their grandfather’s death, defying the code of silence and ideological divisions. In 2025, In 2025, the two women’s daughters – Alessandra, Silvia, and Annalisa, Mate’s great-granddaughters – leave Rome for Split to retrace their family’s history and seek answers after more than eighty years of silence. A journey through memory and the wounds of the past, to understand how hatred can fuel evil and finally find the courage to come to terms with history.
Biography
film director
Tony Saccucci
after teaching history and philosophy, began conducting research at the Sapienza University of Rome on real life movies made in Italy during the early 1920s. In 2017, with Istituto Luce, he made Il pugile del Duce, special mention at the Silver Ribbons for best first film, and in 2019 La prima donna, once again made with Istituto Luce and with Rome's Teatro dell'Opera, Nastro d'argento winner. In 2022, he wrote the script for Marcia su Roma, directed by Mark Cousins, the opening film of the Giornate degli Autori in Venice, and he directed the documentary Lotta continua, presented at the TFF. In 2024 his docu-film Controluce premeried at TFF.
FILMOGRAFIA
Il pugile del Duce (doc, 2017), La prima donna (doc, 2019), Lotta Continua (doc, 2022), Controluce (doc, 2024), Le case spezzate (doc, 2026).
Robert Tomić Zuber
(Croatia), who holds a degree in sociology, works as a journalist for the Croatian press, radio, and television, and contributes to international publications and media outlets such as the BBC. He has received two awards from the Croatian Journalists’ Association for his work. He has directed four documentaries: At the Station in Pula (2001), Accidental Son (2008), Mila Seeking Senida (2010, award-winning at the Sarajevo Film Festival), and Million Dollar Life (2017). From 2013 to 2016, he was head of documentary production for Croatian public television. He founded and directs the production company TOROlab. He is also a professor at the Vern’ Faculty in Zagreb and the founder and director of the Rab Film Festival in Croatia.
FILMOGRAFIA
At the Station in Pula (doc, 2001), Accidental Son (doc, 2008), Mila Seeking Senida (doc, 2010), Million Dollar Life (doc, 2017), Le case spezzate (coregia Tony Saccucci, doc, 2026).
Declaration
film director
"This is, in fact, the first film in which Italy and Croatia have jointly addressed the subject of the foibe massacres. But for us, above all, it is a record of the process of coming to terms with a loss for which there is no body to mourn. It is a tangible representation of a wound of the spirit, one that branches out through the generations of individuals genetically descended from a family unit marked by the violence of History.” (Tony Saccucci)
Cast
& Credits
DIRECTOR: Tony Saccucci (with Robert Tomić Zuber). STORY: Tony Saccucci. PRODUCTION: Videoest with Rai Cinema. CO-PRODUCTION: Morgana Studio and the National Association of Venezia Giulia and Dalmatia-Federesuli. CONTACT: Alessio Bozzer, Videoest info@videoest.it
