Two super principals compete for the approval of viewers on the flagship networks of Rai and Mediaset; the first is Virginia, the protagonist of With your head held high – The courage of a womanwhich starts tonight on Canale 5, a fictional character who however represents many courageous women who for this reason have become victims of squalid attacks via revenge porn; the other is Eugenia (played by Luisa Ranieri), the protagonist of The principal (from 12 January on Rai1) inspired by the Caivano school director Eugenia Confora, who by challenging the Camorra gave the children an alternative to crime.
Blackmail videos, revenge porn, comments on social media and deepfakes are the new faces of bullying and persecution, of which the victims are both children and adults. In Head held high (8 episodes starting tonight 7 January, directed by Giacomo Martelli), Virginia Terzi (Sabrina Ferilli) is the principal of a high school in a lakeside village on the outskirts of Rome. Brilliant educator and creator of Head held higha project against digital addiction, is about to fulfill her life’s dream when an intimate video released without consent overwhelms her in a media scandal. The community splits, the mud machine starts and Virginia must defend herself, her son and the values she believes in. In this context, a choral plot develops: online scandals, family dynamics, first loves and secrets destined to emerge. While the village watches and judges her, Virginia tries to get up. Next to her is Rocco (Francesco Petit), her sixteen-year-old son, sensitive and passionate about chess, who faces the consequences of the scandal while experiencing his first love as a classmate trapped in a toxic relationship with Alex, son of Mayor Morrone.
Supporting Virginia are Giulia, vice-principal and friend, and Marco Colaianni, a physical education teacher who will be ready to expose himself to protect Virginia from the consequences of the video, but also and above all from the threats that the woman is starting to receive.
But who can be mad at the principal and why? To answer this question, the support of Cecilia (Gioisa Spaziani), sister and police inspector will be fundamental: two opposite characters of the two women, united by a deep bond that risks breaking during the investigations. Virginia’s determination to discover the truth could in fact compromise Cecilia’s work.
Meanwhile, out there, an invisible enemy continues to attack Virginia, trying in every way to distance her from school and isolate her. Suspicions will gather on her husband Luigi (Fabrizio Ferracane), a brilliant lawyer who hides a secret, but also on the greedy builder Bodoni (Ninni Bruschetta) and on his beautiful young daughter, Elena.
The series chronicles Virginia’s fall and rebirth, following the painful path a woman still must face to obtain justice in the face of privacy violations, digital blackmail and discrimination that affect the victim more than the perpetrator.
