What is happening around the Disney+ show about the murder of Sarah Scazzi?

Avetrana - This is not Hollywood is speculatively experiencing the same treatment that the murder of Sarah Scazzi received at the time. It was 2010, the guilty parties were members of the Misseri family, and the big scandal, beyond the death of the fifteen-year-old girl, was the intense attention from the public. Everyone felt entitled to share their opinion, just as now, after the news of the release of the four-part miniseries, an original production from Disney+, people rushed to express outrage and mock its (admittedly ugly) poster and newly released trailer. The question then and now remains: how could anyone think of revisiting one of the darkest crime stories in Italian history and turning it into material to be sold to the highest bidder? - or to the highest streamer, in this case.

The pain and shock caused by the events in the small Apulian town fourteen years ago are evidently still fresh in the minds and hearts of those who followed the case closely - albeit from the comfort of their homes. They were able to do so precisely because of that subtitle, This is not Hollywood, which was written as a reminder on one of the walls in Avetrana, given the pilgrimages to the crime scenes and the constant presence of television broadcasters seeking scoops in the area. This is why the miniseries, which presents four points of view over four episodes (Sarah, Sabrina, Michele, and Cosima), focuses on the intention to tell the story of the media circus that engulfed the town, the people involved, and the citizens in a black hole of news reports and interviews about Sarah's tragic disappearance. Let’s not forget that her body was discovered live during the show Chi l’ha visto?. Such a structure for the miniseries could have helped us better understand how the spotlight can change and influence people, whether they thrive in its glow or merely in its reflection. But at the same time, this is where the show fails, wasting the opportunity to avoid sensationalizing the obsessive and fanatical fervor that true crime ignites. Because even in criticizing Avetrana - This is not Hollywood, there is a certain hypocrisy that pretends not to feel a curiosity for the genre, which has now become one of the most popular forms of entertainment in podcasts, TV series, and platforms. And just because it’s in English doesn't mean we can pretend it's something distant from us. We who have just finished the second season of Monsters on Netflix or, staying in Italy, never miss an episode of Stefano Nazzi's Indagini on the first of every month.

It certainly doesn't feel good to feel invaded, plundered, by a production that has brazenly stolen from our own home. But it’s not the first time either, if we think about Marco Tullio Giordana's 2021 film Yara or Marco Pontecorvo's Per Elisa - The Claps Case. The biggest question raised by Avetrana, however, is not the ambiguity of its production, but the romanticization of something so private that it can only be speculated upon. The series itself acknowledges this in its opening, as it is based on the book Sarah. The Girl from Avetrana by Carmine Gazzanni and Flavia Piccinni. Where gaps needed to be filled, the show filled them, but ultimately the reflection on the mania for cameras and how they influenced both the protagonists and the audience remains superficial. This also applies to the characterization of the characters, their points of view, and the overall narrative of the miniseries. Perhaps it should have dared more at this point, possibly creating a staging that only loosely inspired itself on the case and aimed instead to create a true genre product, like the thriller it tries so hard to resemble, but ends up being nothing more than popular fare. Not so different from other dramas, even outside of streaming platforms. And more attention should have been paid to the poster, as the comparison with Maccio Capatonda's Omicidio all’italiana was too obvious and predictably led to public mockery or raised eyebrows.

It would be deceitful, then, to accuse the production of a lack of tact when true crime, especially when it comes from overseas, generates an audience and demand. It is also excessive to sue Disney and the series, as the mayor of Avetrana did, requesting the immediate suspension of the show and a change of its title following an urgent appeal, accepted by the Court of Taranto, which will cause a delay in the release date, officially confirmed today by the official Disney+ Italia accounts. Among the reasons cited is the fear that it «evokes a defamatory portrayal, representing the community as ignorant, backward, complicit, or possibly engaged in the commission of heinous crimes, contrary to reality», as stated in the court documents. But there is respect for Sarah Scazzi's memory in the show, it must be acknowledged, although the script falters repeatedly - problematic is the lack of depth in its attempt to explore Sabrina’s psychology, along with its misstep in the representation of non-conforming bodies, while pulling back when it came to the demonic return of media attention surrounding the crime. What feels most out of place is the constant invocation of death from the very beginning, a stylistic quirk both in writing and direction, which nevertheless does not distance Avetrana - This is not Hollywood from being a miniseries like many others, and like Monsters and others, it perhaps reveals that the truly interesting part of these products is not their craftsmanship, but what they provoke in the masses and in ourselves.