There Was A Comedian Called Cecchelin

Sceneggiatura / Screenplay: Alessio Bozzer Fotografia / Photography: Mauro Zocchi Montaggio / Editing: Christopher Scherlich, Alessio Bozzer Suono / Sound: Marco Bernobi, Christopher Scherlich Interpreti / Cast: Massimo Sangermano, Guido Cecchelin, Alessio Colautti, Marzia Postogna, Ariella Reggio, Paolo Rossi, Pierluigi Sabatti, Renato Sarti, Maurizio Zacchigna, Claudia Cernigoi, Giorgio Strehler, Orazio Bobbio, Tullio Kezich Produzione / Produced by: Videoest Con il sostegno di / Supported by: Fondo Audiovisivo FVG, Film Commission FVG, Regione FVG

Who was Angelo Cecchelin? Rome had Petrolini, Naples had Totò. In Trieste there was Cecchelin. He was a very popular comedian, brilliant and tireless inventor of hilarious jokes. Caustic, cynical, popular in his way of always mocking the power. An irredentist at the time of the Austro-Hungarian empire, irreverent anti-fascist in 1920s, he did not back away from making fun of the “reds” and the Yugoslavs in the “40 days”, or even using his sharp irony on the Allies when they ruled the city. He paid the price with suspensions, warnings, denunciations, arrests, long periods behind bars or forced to a withdrawal from the scene. He died in Turin in 1964, far from his Trieste.

“I reconstructed his life, his profession and his events, I read the writings about him and the autobiographical ones that he left. A truly multifaceted figure emerged. A sad man (as his son Guido says ‘Sad like all comedians’), absolutely brilliant and volcanic, allergic to any form of established power. A perfect character to dedicate a film to.” (A. Bozzer)

Alessio Bozzer
Born in 1975 in Trieste, Alessio Bozzer graduated from the Politecnico di Milano, and from 1999 to 2003 was assistant to Enzo Mari. Since 2006 he has been producer and director for Videoest in Trieste. Since 2013 he has made 8 feature-length documentaries, selected at various international festivals such as EURODOC, ReAct Workshop and Baltic Sea Docs. In 2017 the Trieste FF presented his documentary Trieste, Yugoslavia.

filmografia scelta / selected filmography
2013 Perché un film su Michele De Lucchi doc. 2014 100 anni dopo doc. 2017 Trieste, Yugoslavia doc. 2019 Di padre in figlio doc.; The Community – Ordinary Serbian Life in Trieste doc. 2022 Nuovo Cinema Buie doc.; Give Up the Ghost cm / sf 2025 C’era un comico di nome Cecchelin doc.