From left Stefano Zazzera, Alessandro Haber, Dario D’Ambrosi
After over forty years of artistic and human research in the world of disability, Dario D’Ambrosi, director, author and founder of the Teatro Patologico, signs his new film which presents itself as an intense and visionary work inspired by a true story, which tells of the courage, suffering and dignity of those who live every day with illness and social exclusion.
The story originates from a meeting that actually took place in 1979, during the author’s hospitalization at the “Paolo Pini” mental hospital in Milan, where D’Ambrosi met a young man suffering from serious mental and physical disabilities, marked by a profound internal suffering but capable of transmitting a poignant strength. Decades later, that testimony has taken shape in a film that doesn’t just want to tell the story of the condition of a single individual, but the tragedy of the entire family who lives alongside a child with a physical and mental disability. An aspect that is often forgotten or put aside, but which is instead an integral and painful part of reality. Indeed. the disease never affects just one person, but involves those who share their home, life and the daily burden of fragility.
To give a face and voice to the protagonist, D’Ambrosi chose Stefano Zazzera, a man who, struck by Parkinson’s disease at just 40 years old, embodies with authenticity and delicacy the fragility of the character, an Italian “Joker”. The meeting between the director and the non-professional actor generated a profound human complicity, making it possible to narrate a story that shakes, moves and invites reflection. An interpretation that is not constructed on the drawing board, but which is born from his pain, his weaknesses and his strength. Zazzera manages to convey suffering without ever falling into pietism; Precisely for this reason the spectator can live a unique and unrepeatable artistic and emotional experience. He plays the role of a “Joker” who is not celebrated as an icon of madness, because here the suffering is real, authentic, experienced first hand. His is therefore a masterful interpretation of a psychic condition.
In the cast, in addition to Stefano Zazzera in the role of Luca, there are: Alessandro Haber (Benito), Andrea Roncato (taxi driver).
the story
One night, what seemed routine turns into a disturbing journey through broken memories, remorse and family secrets. A lonely taxi driver encounters a hallucinating and cruel reality, where suffering becomes spectacle and fragility is put on sale as a consumer commodity. At the center, the story of a man marked by illness and exclusionwhich embodies the pain of those who live in the balance between dignity and abandonment, and that of a family overwhelmed by the unsustainable weight of disability. In this tangle of broken lives and unfulfilled desires there are no real culprits or easy acquittals: there are only human beings, vulnerable wounds, looking for an opening to rediscover their humanity. Between poetic visions and moments of cruel realism, the story leads the viewer into a powerful emotional experience, where fragility becomes a mirror of a collective strength capable of transforming pain into the possibility of rebirth.
The actors of the pathological theater at the latest edition of the Sanremo Festival
the pathological theatre
The Pathological Theater represents the only experience in the world where theater is taught to mentally ill people who become students and then transform into promoters of their own theatrical ideas. This reality offers the opportunity to young people in a mentally disadvantaged condition to undertake a positive experience aimed at improving integration with their family members and society, which can be used in a future continuation of studies and possible entry into the world of work, in all fields of artistic production: writing, acting, scenic design, music.
The Pathological Theater has brought its company to the most prestigious national and international stages, including the Ariston stage during the Sanremo Festival 2025, Argentina Theater in Rome, Franco Parenti Theater in Milan, La MaMa Theater in New York, UN Headquarters in New Yorkwhere they recited Euripides’ Medea in ancient Greek in front of 500 ambassadors from all over the world, European Parliament in Brusselsguests of former president David Sassoli, Auditorium Umberto Agnelli in Tokyo, Market Theater in Johannesburg, Wilton’s Music Hall in London, where he won the award for Best Show. In 2024 D’Ambrosi has indeed brought it to the big screen I’m a little crazy and you?a feature film which saw the participation of nationally and internationally renowned actors like Claudio Santamaria, Edoardo Leo, Raoul Bova, Vinicio Marchioni, Claudia Gerini, Stefania Rocca, Stefano Fresi, Marco Bocci, together with 30 young people with mental and physical disabilities from the Pathological Theatre.
