Telling the story of Davide Cervia is telling the story of a man of secrets that he tried to hide for his entire life. Davide was a man, a husband, a father and a citizen who vanished in the void in a normal day. Since twenty years his existence is suspended between life and death.
On September 12 1990 the 31 years old man from Sanremo didn't come back to his house near Velletri, Rome. As usual, his wife and his two children were in the house waiting for him. A black hole seems to have swallowed him and from that moment on no more clues of Davide Cervia.
Little by little, among a thousand hurdles, half-truths have appeared. Then gradually, these admissions have taken the shape of a big international plot. The existence of these half-truths has come afloat thanks to the effort of the Cervia family and of a group of people, who have focused their interest on the case. In many occasions these people have faced threats, trials, lies, perjuries and attempts to bury under the sand all the Cervia's case. Fuoco Amico is the intimate tale of a public odyssey, a trip among words, testimonies and memories of one of the many State secrets kept hidden and not yet disclosed.

Director’s Notes:
With Fuoco Amico a personal trilogy on the missed father comes to an end. It started with Negli occhi in 2009, which was followed two years after by 11 metri. The former was dedicated to the life of Vittorio Mezzogiorno, while the latter to that of Agostino Bartolomei. The missed father is a theme I like a lot, which is central in the stories I want to narrate, and which is very present in this third act which swirls around Davide Cervia and his misterious disappearance. Three existences tied together with a common denominator: the absence.
Davide Cervia suddenly disappears in a day which will sign forever the life of a group of normal people to whom the love of a father, a relative and a friend is denied. As it is denied even the right to a normal life, and above all, to the truth.
It is on this absence that I wanted to build the architecture of my new documentary. I based my work on the emotions which came off from twenty years of battles, with questions without answer, doubts and fears. Even the pride and the strenuous battle against an invisible "rubber wall" has its place, a wall made by unknowns to bury under the sand a truth too dangerous and shameful to be revealed. My work as a writer and as a director becomes a flux in time and space which shows from a private perpective a public tragedy covered by lies. The circumstances of the Cervia's case are the centre of a story yet to be written, which after a long pause has taken again its path towards a truth, for too long covered under a deep silence.
Fuoco Amico is mainly a movie on denied affection which passes through the words, the memories and the emotions of people who have never gave up looking for their beloved. This documentary takes the shape of a disturbing spy-story. The result is a tale made with pictures and sounds from the past reflected in an anguished present, which shows the involution of one of the many State secrets, born and raised in the sick belly of this country. Everything starts from the disappearance of a normal citizen from a small village close to Rome, and goes through an unmentionable secret which diffuses beyond the State boundaries: who is Davide Cervia? And what is hidden behind his disappearance? And what secret was he compelled to hide to his own family? Many have questioned themselves this way when shadows have gathered upon his disappearance. Many others have preferred not to look for answers to these questions. Others, again, have worked to keep the truth well hidden. I do not belong to none of the above, because prior to a couple of years ago, I didn't have any clue on Davide's story. My ignorance is already a sign of the work of concealment made to hide the incident. Another is the huge effort the family and friends made to uncover important details about Cervia's fate. Details that the State didn't try to unearth. The documentary shows the duel between those who looked for the truth, and those who worked to deny it.