Pablo Trincia presents his docuseries on Denis Bergamini: "Complicated but necessary work"

On the sidelines of the presentation of the docuseries “The cone of shadow: the story of Denis Bergamini – the series” at the Teatro Filodrammatici in Milan, Sportal.it interviewed one of the two authors of the docuseries: Pablo Trincia. The’other author is Debora Campanella, while directing is Paolo Negro. The team included Bruno Palermo and Silvia Vallini, who have been working on this case for Sky Sport for 15 years, also following the trial of Isabella Internò that began in 2021 and lasted 3 years.

How difficult was such a job?
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“Entering cases like Denis Bergamini’s is very difficult because it is obviously entering a completely new world, a completely new affair that I knew nothing or almost nothing about. Reading so many papers, listening to hours of audio, watching hours of video, interviewing people, asking a thousand questions is always very complex, but I mean necessary. Telling a story means studying, also trying to understand things you don&#8217t know, in this case about forensics or dynamics, about accidents… it&#8217s exhausting but it” is necessary and it”.

How complicated was it to find people willing to talk?
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“This is one of those stories where it tended to be the case that the people who talked talked talked and it is difficult for anybody else to come up, then I really hope to be surprised otherwise. It is a case in which the protagonists’ fear of telling dominated so much. So a lot of witnesses came out years later with a lot of reticence, they struggled. It&#8217s a scary story and so there&#8217s just not that willingness to expose themselves. I am sure there is someone else who came through there who saw something else from that pad, however, I doubt it will ever come out”.

Denis’ sister played a key role with her testimonies: what impressed you most about her?
“What struck me most about Donata Bergamini is her coolness. She is a person who manages to maintain an insane emotional detachment from the drama she has experienced and felt on her skin. I understood that she does this because she has a goal, which is to re-establish a judicial truth for her brother, whose name has been besmirched in every way, and so she doesn&#8217t look anyone in the face and so she doesn&#8217t let herself be tossed left and right by emotions, but she is someone who really pulls straight. And this thing I had never seen in anybody, however, she is a woman who has actually suffered for 35 years, so she has obviously hardened herself a lot. She has been so cooperative and without her we would not have been able to accomplish this work”.

How much did the testimonies of Denis’s teammates help?
“Denis’ teammates, particularly Michele Padovano, but also Gigi Simoni, were invaluable because they told us just those first years down in Cosenza, some details, some particulars of their teammate, but also the account of the very day he disappeared, what they did just before, his attitude in the room, his sudden change of mood when he went out. All of these things really helped us a lot because they enrich the story with different points of view and they were really very valuable, you can see that there’s this strong attachment even after such a long time, both with Denis Bergamini and just with the team, the very idea of that Cosenza Calcio that had made a city dream”.