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The Duce's Boxer: The black champion that Mussolini erased from history

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- This documentary, directed by Tony Saccucci, which brings to light the incredible story of Leone Jacovacci, arrives in Italian theatres with Istituto Luce-Cinecittà on 21 March

The Duce's Boxer: The black champion that Mussolini erased from history

It was a time when boxing matches drew in the crowds that a Series A derby would today. We are in Rome in 1928, the height of the fascist regime. Forty thousand spectators filled the bleachers of the Stadio Nazionale (today the Stadio Flaminio), and in the middle of the grass was a ring. Two Italians were competing for the European Title, an unprecedented event that also warranted the first live radio broadcast in Italian history. Film footage recorded every stage of the encounter until the 15th round. Then, nothing: the final minutes, the ones that decided the victor, were missing, edited out, gone forever. This was because the man who had won the middleweight title from the blond and “milky” Mario Bosisio was Leone Jacovacci, a champion who was handsome, strong, popular with the public, but who in Mussolini's eyes had committed one single, cardinal sin: he was black. The Duce's Boxer [+see also:
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brings to light an incredible story of repression and manipulation of reality, as well as insidious racism. The enthralling documentary was directed by Tony Saccucci, a high-school teacher of history and philosophy who has made his first effort as a director with this title, which was produced and is being distributed in Italian theatres by the Istituto Luce-Cinecittà beginning on 21 March, the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.

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The film is a loose adaptation of the book Black Roma by Mauro Valeri (Palombi Editori, 2008), one of the foremost experts on racism in Italy, who was the first to unearth and reconstruct the iconic story of Jacovacci. It depicts the journey of this great, forgotten athlete from his birth in the Congo to an Italian father and African mother to his first boxing matches in London and Paris, after a childhood and adolescence spent in Rome and time spent travelling in search of recognition and acceptance through various jobs and identities (he called himself Jack Walker and proclaimed himself to be African-American). Then it covers his return to Italy and his long struggle to be recognised as an Italian citizen and boxer, and to be allowed to fight under the Italian flag. It ends with the fateful match in the Stadio Nazionale, which cemented his triumph but, paradoxically, also marked the end of his career, buried in silence and oblivion.

Seemingly aware of the risk of being erased from collective memory, over the years, day by day, Jacovacci compiled an enormous private album with photographs and newspaper clippings mentioning him – including one that said, a few days after his victory, “A black man cannot represent Italy abroad.” The boxer meticulously noted down every match, victory and defeat, but extraordinarily, on the date of the match for the European Title, the outcome isn't recorded. The line remains empty, as if even Jacovacci was censoring himself. It is a treasure trove of valuable documents that alternate, thanks to Chiara Ronchini’s skilful editing, with period films and modern images, passionately telling the story of a great athlete, the huge injustice that he endured and a posthumous revival (Leone died in 1983, in Milan, where he was working as a caretaker in a building). It is a story that is still relevant, which invites us to reflect, for once, on racism not just in our encounters with foreigners, but in our interactions with our own fellow citizens, and to remember the black Italians who have made history, because – as Valeri says, to great effect – “If a black man cannot become white, we can try to make this country more black.” 

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(Translated from Italian by Margaret Finnell)

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