"Il Mostro," the Sardinian-themed event series, is a success: the cast is all Sardinian, and the scenes were filmed in Villacidro.

After its premiere at the 82nd Venice International Film Festival, the Netflix series "Il Mostro" (The Monster) has been out for just four days, but it's already enjoying a massive stream. The four-episode series focuses on the infamous "Sardinian lead" in the investigation into the so-called Monster of Florence. Its success is sealed by the all-Sardinian cast, directed by Stefano Sollima, who created it with Leonardo Fasoli, and some scenes were filmed in Villacidro.

Francesca Olia, an actress from Cagliari, born in 1996, plays the "monster's" first victim: Barbara Locci, originally from Villasalto, killed with her lover, Antonio Lo Bianco, at age 32 in Sigma in 1968. Giacomo Fadda from Cagliari and Valentino Mannias from Serramanna play the brothers Francesco and Salvatore Vinci, originally from Villacidro. Marco Bullitta, from Sassari, and Antonio Tintis, a Roman of Sardinian origins, play the brothers Stefano and Giovanni Mele. And then there's Giordano Mannu, a very young actor from Carbonia, who plays Natalino Mele, Barbara Locci's son, who was sleeping in the back seat of the car where the couple was traveling at the time of the attack. Among the other Sardinian actors Giuseppe Boy, Alessandro Cucca, Luca Pusceddu, Adele Piras, Barbara Pitzianti, Monica Demuru, Sabina Zicconi and Marta Proietti Orzella .

Sixteen people were killed in eight double homicides between 1968 and 1985 by one or more serial killers. The series retraces the entire first phase of the investigation, specifically the Sardinian lead, explored before Pietro Pacciani and his "cronies" entered one of the longest and most controversial investigations in Italian history.

The woman's husband, Stefano Mele, originally from Fordongianus, was sentenced to 14 years for the murders of Locci and Lo Bianco. Mele initially denied any responsibility and accused two of his wife's other lovers, the Vinci brothers, also Sardinian emigrants, before confessing. Yet the murders of couples living alone in the Florentine countryside continued.

"To truly tell the story, horror must be experienced, not circumvented. And to arrive clearly, without embracing a single theory, history must begin at the beginning," Sollima says. "Reporting with honesty, respect, and rigor must still make sense. Not to solve, not to understand, but simply to remember. A way to stay close to those who remained there, forever, in the night."

"The series Il mostro, directed by Stefano Sollima, is a serious and thoughtful work," comments Lorenzo Tombelli, Natalino Mele's lawyer. " It conveys the complexity of a story that for decades has been distorted, bringing attention back to the facts, the people, and the lives it has disrupted. The director rigorously chooses to follow the so-called Sardinian trail and clearly shows the impact of prejudice and relentlessness against the women involved in those years, often judged before they were even heard. Sollima's series, therefore, doesn't fuel the hype, but offers a lucid and respectful look at a story that continues to question the collective conscience."

"With Natale Mele," he added in a statement, "now 64, a survivor of the 1968 crime that killed his mother, Barbara Locci, and Antonio Lo Bianco, we are embarking on a journey that is not only judicial but also humane." The case recently received a further development: "A genetic consultation by Dr. Ugo Ricci, appointed by the Florence Prosecutor's Office, has confirmed that Natalino is not the son of Stefano Mele, as has always been believed, but of Giovanni Vinci, who was never involved in the investigation into the Monster of Florence."

For the lawyer, "this new scientific evidence also helps rehabilitate the coherence of the Sardinian lead, drawing attention to questions that have remained unanswered for nearly sixty years: why was the six-year-old boy spared by the killer? Is it possible he knew him? Today, however, what really matters to him is something else: finding his mother Barbara's grave. He doesn't know where she is buried," he concludes, "he's never been there, and attempts in the municipalities where she may be buried have so far been unsuccessful. After nearly sixty years, he simply wishes to be able to bring her a flower. Anyone who can provide information on her burial site is invited to contact us."

The Monster is a production of The Apartment - a Fremantle company - and AlterEgo, produced by Lorenzo Mieli, Stefano Sollima and Gina Gardini

(Unioneonline/D)