Filming will begin on October 1st - between Sardinia and Campania, for approximately 12 weeks - for "177 Days. The Kidnapping of Farouk Kassam" , the new six-episode series soon to be broadcast on Rai 1 in three prime time evenings.
The series is co-produced by Rai Fiction - Bim Produzione, a company of the Wild Bunch Group - produced by Riccardo Russo with international distribution by Mediawan Rights.
Directed by Carlo Carlei (Flowers Above Hell, The Fugitive, The Bastards of PizzoFalcone), the fiction stars Marco Bocci and French actress Antonia Desplat in the roles of Fateh Kassam and Marion Bleriot , father and mother of little Farouk Kassam who was kidnapped on 15 January 1992 in Porto Cervo by a group of Sardinian criminals led by the bandit Matteo Boe .
The cast also includes Rosa Diletta Rossi, Domenico Diele, Enrico Inserra, Mauro Addis, Rose Aste, Giacomo Fadda, Giulia Bellanzoni, Leonardo Capuano, Andrea Tedde and Martina Tore.
Filippo Papa plays little Farouk for the first time on screen.
"177 Days: The Kidnapping of Farouk Kassam" is based on the true story of perhaps the most well-known kidnapping in Italy. Thirty years after the events, the series recounts the six-month long search and investigation to find little Farouk.
A story that is also a snapshot of the country – and the island – in the 1990s, of the role of the media, and of how the entire Sardinian and Italian community rallied around the Kassam family and little Farouk.
Two young parents in a foreign land, the joint pool of Police and Carabinieri, two journalists searching for the truth, the involvement of the most notorious Sardinian bandit in history - Graziano Mesina -, make this series a choral story in which all the characters have a common goal: the liberation of Farouk Kassam.
"177 Days: The Kidnapping of Farouk Kassam" is written by Lea Tafuri, Antonio Manca, and Vincenzo Marra, and is based on the book "My Son Farouk: Anatomy of a Kidnapping," written by Fateh Kassam with the collaboration of Marco Corrias.
