Original subtitles

[lighter flicks]

[somber music plays]

So, it's not drugs seeking you.

It's you who seek drugs.

You come here

to be helped…

to get out of this situation.

[birds chirping]

There are many other rehab centers you can enter and leave as you please.

You know the deal in San Patrignano.

If you come here, you are here to stay.

But if you want to give up and go back,

then that's a no.

Because that's when you really need help,

when you want to give up the rocky recovery journey,

which will, however, lead you to a better life.

So it is at that moment that I have to help you.

And at that moment, I will not let you leave.

And if you want to leave at all costs,

then, guys…

I will isolate you.

I'll put you on your own.

[man 1] That commune was built in the image and likeness of Vincenzo.

What he did was huge.

It was unique in Europe.

[woman] It was like a real town, with its own police and its own prison.

[man 1] San Patrignano had become like an Eden

where drug addicts came back to life.

There were thousands of them there.

[man 2] It's not a miracle when a flower blooms.

It's a miracle when a flower blooms from a dead plant.

In San Patrignano, there were those seen as the dregs of society.

That's where you see the miracle.

[woman] He was regarded as the savior.

This is a family. It's not a rehab center.

[audience cheering]

[man 3] He could have said anything he wanted

and people would still adore him.

Vincenzo Muccioli!

[man 1] He was glorified

and became a reference point for all of Italy.

[man 4] Did you ever feel that your methods could violate human dignity?

[chain rattling]

But deprive them of what?

Deprive them of heroin. Deprive them of marginalization.

Deprive them of death.

[man 2] If Muccioli was such a fair man, why was he so heavily condemned?

But if Christ, the son of God, was such a fair man,

why was he so heavily condemned?

[man 4] Vincenzo Muccioli, founder of the San Patrignano Commune,

has spent 35 days in prison to protect it.

[man 5] But it took some casualties.

[newsman] Roberto Maranzano has been beaten up

in the butcher shop of San Patrignano.

[indistinct wail]

[man 6] Vincenzo Muccioli was intimidating.

[reporter] Are you confident that Muccioli was guilty?

Without a doubt.

[man 4] Much has been said of him:

wizard, spiritist,

psychic, and charlatan.

But also saint.

[Vincenzo Muccioli] Despite the limits of my human imperfection,

-I have saved 1,000 lives. -[crowd clamoring]

I am a drug addict.

I only trust Muccioli, only him!

[sobbing]

[man 1] In order to do good,

do any means justify the end?

Are there no limits?

[opening theme music playing]

[rooster crows]

[insects chirping]

[tools whirring]

[man] I believe that if a tree has rotten roots,

then its fruits cannot be good.

[men chattering]

If this place is still here 25 years after Vincenzo Muccioli's death,

it means that he has passed on an idea

which still inspires this place to this day.

I knew from the start, maybe from the very first year I was here,

when I was still trying to escape, that I wanted to be a doctor here.

[sedate clarinet solo music plays]

I used to take drugs,

and one of the reasons I came here was because I had suffered an overdose.

Initially, I found this place fascinating at times,

and terrible at other times,

because for a drug addict, entering rehab is painful.

The real struggle, the psychological one,

starts when he stops using drugs, not when he takes them.

Depending on my inner struggles,

I would either see evil everywhere,

or I would see things in a different light.

When talking to Vincenzo Muccioli,

I was struck by the interest that he had in me.

Each of them who came asking for help,

have been gathered here, and "gathered" is the right word,

because they arrive here in a larval stage

with that bit of strength that they have left.

It wasn't until I got here and quit drugs that I began to understand,

through the challenges I came across,

the reasons that had led me to start taking drugs.

So I kept mulling things over,

trying to understand who is this person, who are those people? What do they do?

Are they good, are they bad? All this was going through my mind.

And it wasn't just me, all of us went through this.

[speaking indistinctly]

[Boschini] From the first years I was there, I always saw people

who were close to Vincenzo, like I was,

who, at some point,

gave up and became very critical towards him.

[Delogu] I was Vincenzo Muccioli's driver and bodyguard.

I was with him day and night.

Armed. So I wasn't just anyone.

I've never betrayed anyone.

I have been betrayed. I have been ditched.

I was probably the only person close to him

who loved him till the end.

Vincenzo Muccioli had an incredible charisma.

He saved me from drug addiction.

They came to pick me up from the station.

I still had drugs running through my veins.

[birds clucking]

When I arrived at San Patrignano, there was nothing there.

I saw this big table of beautiful people with long beards…

Those first guys were tough ones.

I mean, they were former Red Brigades and tough mobsters.

I mean, they weren't wimps.

[Vincenzo Muccioli] We are here to help

those who want to get out of a bad situation.

I am not the sole founder.

Well, I founded it,

but there are many other guys who, just like myself,

wondered what society and the system were doing

for this youth and about this fast-spreading plight.

We've always refused political and religious affiliations.

Here, our door is open to the world,

which is made of people

with many different political and religious ideas.

Everyone is welcome here.

The '70s in Italy were the years of the extremists,

so in the commune there were fascists, former Red Brigades, all sorts.

Truly, I didn't know anything about politics,

but my friends were of the extreme right-wing.

[engine turns over]

[intricate orchestral music playing]

[Delogu] When I was 13 years old, my family moved to Milan.

Milan in the '70s was a violent place.

There was a tumultuous, unbelievable political situation.

[crowd chanting] Communism won't prevail!

Communism won't prevail!

[protester] Every fascist captured will be massacred!

Back then, people from the Left were more joyful than us.

And the girls were gorgeous.

When you went to their parties,

those hippy girls would look at you and say,

"Forget this nonsense. Come here. Let's kiss."

[laughing] Oh, my God, that's great!

[dog barking]

-This way, come on. -[bicycle bell chimes]

All around and round.

In the '70s, I was a student and I got involved in left-wing politics.

In those years, people wanted to be a part of something.

Those were very active and energetic times.

Then things changed quickly.

They were the Years of Lead, which was a dark time in our history.

Shootings, terror attacks…

-[gun cocks] -[gunshot]

At that time, and not by chance,

large quantities of drugs started to circulate in Italy.

[newsman] Following a long investigation, drug trafficking has been intercepted

between Turkey and Italy.

The drug was ready to be sold in the streets of Milan.

[man] I was young, and suddenly, this wave of heroin was upon us.

The arrival of heroin

obliterated everyone's dreams.

And at a very special time,

because there were the student protests and the youth marches in the streets.

I arrived at San Patrignano between 1979 and 1980.

[pensive electronic music playing]

I was in prison and I was 19 years old.

I managed to be transferred there.

I was a criminal. I had committed some crimes.

And this judge, Andreucci, had the guts to send me there.

A man helping out a fellow man.

Well, I remember Fabio Mini. I remember him as a, uh…

regular client at the Investigations Office.

He went in and out of prison many times.

And he was transferred to San Patrignano.

I personally sent many people to San Patrignano.

Often the youth committed crimes,

because the '70s and '80s

were marked by widespread drug dealing.

[Delogu] I was about 15 years old.

I started with smoking the odd spliff like everyone else did back then.

["Let Me In" by The Ar-Kaics playing]

That drug was dealt by the hippies.

They went to Holland to get hashish in those Volkswagen vans.

Then, suddenly, those guys were gone

and were replaced by some strange people.

I mean, people with these big Alfa Romeo cars,

short hair, and smart jackets.

They knew we were looking for something to get high,

and they'd call us, "Hey, come here. You need anything?"

"I want some hash." "I've got it."

We'd give them five 10,000 lira notes,

and as change, they'd often give us a hit.

We would called it "bogey" because it was a little brown sugar ball.

He pulled out a new syringe,

he had all the equipment, and gave it to us.

Since we worshiped guys like Lou Reed and The Stones, all notorious junkies,

it was cool for us to share something with our legends.

And so we shot up.

[lighter clicks]

[birds squawking]

[Cantelli] The beginning of the '70s were years of transition and crisis,

because the youth movements were fading

and the social and collective utopias were crumbling.

And this seemed to have sparked many existential crises among the youth.

[inaudible]

I started…

when I was 18.

I always thought that if I was ever going to take drugs,

I'd start with the real ones,

like heroin, which back then, obviously,

had a reputation as a very dangerous drug.

And, to me, dangerous meant it masked something extraordinary.

I was madly in love with this gorgeous girl.

The whole school was in love with her too.

I wanted to go to bed with her, even though she had a boyfriend,

but they were bisexual,

which made them even more fascinating in my eyes.

We did end up in bed, but before that

she injected me with the first heroin dose of my life.

After that, I lost all interest in making love to her.

I felt totally disinterested.

I was lost in my own personal ecstasy…

and needed nothing else.

[Boschini] I had a deep hatred of drug addicts.

To me, they were responsible for damaging my family's well-being.

I was 11 or 12 years old,

and I was furious at my older brothers

who took hash, LSD, and junk like that.

The crazy thing was that as soon as my brothers left,

they both moved to Bologna.

I was the only one left at home.

I started doing the same things they used to do.

[De Stefani] I fell in love with someone who took drugs regularly,

and with my rescuer personality, "I will save you…"

It just went like that. And then I started to take drugs too.

Heroin makes you feel like you're whole.

You need nothing else.

It's like a regression.

I believe it's similar to what you feel in your maternal womb.

[Delogu] You feel this great warmth inside.

Then it wears off… more and more,

and you have to increase the doses

until you can't control it anymore.

We went to our dealer and said, "Hey, we're not feeling too well."

He looked at us and said, "You're going through withdrawal."

"Withdrawal? [laughs] What's that?"

"It's the addiction."

[gasps]

And you will be driven to crime and to ask money from your parents,

sell your possessions, rings, necklaces…

How could I make 300,000 lira a day

to feed my habits?

You start losing everything: love, family,

just to get your hit,

not to get high anymore, but because you're addicted to it.

And this will lead you straight to your death.

I was a right-winger, and I found myself with left-wingers,

Red Brigades members, fascists…

all queuing up to buy our fix.

[Mini] It was devastating for the whole of Italy.

And we found ourselves in it.

I think politicians were aware of this, or maybe they were taken by surprise too.

But, in any case, we paid the price.

I still bear the scars on my body,

but it could have been avoided if…

if someone had intervened or informed us, like maybe the State, but it ran rampant.

[wind whistling]

[Delogu] The towns were full of zombies.

[cold, pensive music playing]

The families of drug addicts are the ones who suffer the most.

It's your parents who see you going out,

not knowing if you will be back.

[reporter] How does your son buy drugs if he hasn't got a job?

[woman] I give him the money.

-[reporter] How can you afford it? -I borrow it and get into debt. Heavily.

[reporter] How much does your son need a day?

It depends… 40-50,000 lira.

It depends.

I have nothing left.

I sold everything, even the TV.

[reporter] What happens if you refuse to hand him money?

Eh…

He goes crazy.

I can't bear it anymore.

I can't handle this battle any longer.

[echoing] I can't handle this battle any longer.

[man] At the end of 1978, I was 20 years old,

and I started working as a journalist.

I was looking for stories linked to this new issue

affecting our generation, drugs.

The government ignored it. They didn't know how to deal with it.

So, many little rehabs sprang up around

because people didn't know what else to do.

[bird squawking]

[Andreucci] Many rehab centers and communities opened up.

They were, let's say, rustic, simple,

run by inexpert and unqualified people,

with no experience in psychology, pedagogy, or medicine.

They were people with good intentions, but who were clueless and unskilled.

[Nigro] There were strange rumors about San Patrignano.

They said it was a commune for drug addicts,

which had some unusual and tough approaches.

And that the person in charge, Vincenzo Muccioli,

um, was considered like a guru.

Naturally, all this intrigued me and prompted me to go and check it out.

[chickens clucking]

It was a farmhouse, a strange place, a bit dirty.

It looked like an abandoned farmstead,

and then there was this man, Muccioli, this so-called guru,

who came across as a reliable man.

I just noticed a lot of indifference, and I saw people…

dying, with no one caring for them.

So I found myself blaming this society

for its inertia, its populism, and its unaccomplished system.

The indifference…

[Delogu] When they arrived at San Patrignano,

these guys were just a burden for their parents.

My parents, they were like…

[sighs] "Keep him there. We can't take anymore."

On top of that, it was free for all of us.

[reporter] How do you treat them?

We treat them with powerful injections…

It's called love,

and trust,

understanding, no judgment.

[Mini] Vincenzo was always with us.

I could really feel his love,

his desire to help others.

It was genuine. Someone who opens his house

to offer you a helping hand and relieve you of your struggles.

I love them. They love me. We love each other.

And if I love someone, I need to show it.

So when I see them around, I hug them.

[man 1] This is where it all began.

[man 2] This was your father's house?

It was my father's house when San Patrignano was the family farm.

-[man 2] Twenty people were sleeping here. -[man 1] Twenty-six.

You would walk in and see a sea of bunk beds.

But also here, my dad would share his room with three or four people.

See?

So many memories.

When my parents first opened San Patrignano,

I was 13 years old.

If you look at the pictures

of those days,

you can really see a hippy commune from the '70s.

["Venderò" by Edoardo Bennato plays]

It was dusty, messy…

But despite the hardship, the mess, the inexperience,

what prevailed was the great will to live.

[Nigro] He was welcoming broken youth.

I was struck by his openness.

♪ I will sell my new shoes ♪

I will always remember the effect of his physical presence,

because he was a big man, Vincenzo,

over 1.90 meters tall,

with an incredible gaze which seemed to pierce the air.

When you come from the world of addiction, where you have no beliefs or hopes,

and you see this big man

with this deep, warm voice,

and this powerful presence…

So one of his hugs or words was like 100 hugs or words by other people.

I arrived in this courtyard, and the place looked a bit like a commune,

long hair, bandanas…

[Mini] The farmhouse with its land belonged to Vincenzo.

He had a few chickens…

♪ To the gentlemen art dealers ♪

♪ I will sell my madness ♪

He had many dogs, because he loved dogs.

And it's no coincidence that today there's a dog groomer.

I loved dogs too.

More than anything, we would have fun.

We had no drugs there. We had relationships.

I don't think I have ever laughed so much in my life

as I did back then at San Patrignano

with the first guys who arrived there

in search of their new beginnings.

♪ How much does my freedom cost? ♪

[Mini] Initially, we had these containers and caravans under a shed.

Sometimes we had no hot water because it wouldn't warm up…

We were pioneers.

We were close to each other, warmed up by our humanity

and by joy.

[all singing]

[reporter] Vincenzo, some of the guys get here still under the effect of drugs.

-They then go through withdrawal. -Yes.

[reporter] How do you deal with it? Is there a doctor or health center?

No, we have no one, also because we have asked the doctors,

I have personally called the hospital in Rimini many times,

but they all shut their doors to our requests, so…

[Delogu] Vincenzo grasped

that the government wasn't giving any answers.

All they did was take you to the hospital,

tie your wrists, and give you psychotropic drugs.

Alternatively, they'd give you morphine or methadone, which was awful.

[birds chirping]

I work at the public addiction center in Rimini…

We believed that a therapy with methadone

could be useful to get drug addicts

away from criminality.

But we knew it wasn't enough.

[woman] What happens in the hospital

is that there is one doctor who gives you a prearranged therapy.

But methadone isn't a suitable medication to get clean because it's addictive.

It's crazy. This is why, here, we've never allowed,

categorically,

any kind of pills or medications like that.

Like methadone, that we absolutely do not believe in,

Rohypnol, Valium, or many other sleeping pills.

[Delogu] My withdrawal from drugs took a long time.

My addiction level was quite severe.

I also used to take cocaine and amphetamines.

It lasted about a month.

[Vincenzo Muccioli] Whenever they've arrived here in a state of despair

or after an overdose,

we have always been able to help them

just by using… some very simple methods.

We use natural herbs and remedies.

We use natural herbs to ease the withdrawal symptoms.

For example, massages with saffron

are very effective in relaxing and stretching cramped muscles.

[Delogu] He would personally call around…

every evening and give me acupuncture,

which would make me feel better, and give me massages

using herbal infusions

to cure me, as I have been very sick.

My dream was to be able to sleep and eat.

I was trying to get back to life, slowly.

But at that point, I didn't think I would make it.

[Mini] It's a bit like having the flu.

But once your body and mind are back, you need to manage your emotions.

That's the hardest part.

[Montecchi] Heroin withdrawal lasts six days.

And that's just the physical addiction.

Then you're left

with the mental addiction,

-which is harder to overcome. -[thunder rumbles]

[Cantelli] It is illusory to think that it is an issue

affecting only your body and its organic functions.

What you are not willing to accept

is that this drug, or these drugs, as I am referring to heroin and cocaine,

have entered your soul.

And they have changed your personality.

To the drug addict, drugs are his life.

This means that getting him off drugs is not enough.

You have to create an alternate world to that of drugs,

which will interest him, engage him, and make him feel passionate,

and which will slowly make him find a new dimension of existence,

different from the one he had been living through drugs.

[upbeat acoustic music plays]

[cow lows]

[animals bleating]

[Mini] Vincenzo made us feel responsible and in charge

of our own life through the duties and commitments to that place.

[Delogu] We started off by keeping cows and sheep.

I would get up in the morning and wake everyone up,

with my helpers, my right and left-hand men.

There was a beautiful hierarchy.

Wake up! Wake up!

Get up, come on!

[dogs barking]

-Come on, guys. Get up! -[rooster crows]

-[dog barking] -[man] Here's your cigarette, Delogu!

You had to prove you could get up and work daily.

And after doing that for a while,

then you would become a man,

a man that could be trusted.

And the reward for this man…

was to be in charge of another man who needed help at that time.

[goats bleating]

And in this way, the commune was able to expand.

[piglet squealing]

Vincenzo used to say that he truly believed

San Patrignano would eventually be led exclusively by former drug addicts.

[Mini] Vincenzo entrusted me with the new arrivals.

We would harvest hay, build fences…

There were enclosures for horses,

big, wooden fences, just like in the Wild West.

-[whip cracks] -[cow bellows]

[Boschini] Claiming, in the '80s,

that the most suitable people

to look after drug addicts

were former drug addicts

was considered absolute heresy.

[Mini] The approach we used was being each other's counselors,

based on our own similar experiences.

I have seen a lot of therapists.

Many have no idea what I'm talking about.

[dogs barking]

[Boschini] At San Patrignano, it was a common belief

that sciences like psychology and psychiatry

could not cure drug addiction.

Anyway,

if I was out of here

and tried to work out what to do

and sought help from a psychologist, psychiatrist, or psychoanalyst,

it would have been ineffective.

[Cantelli] The early San Patrignano I knew, at the very beginning,

the real therapy was Vincenzo. [chuckles]

The true therapy was his ability to relate to each one of us.

He knew when to intervene.

He knew when someone was about to walk the wrong path.

The Shock was a ritual.

It was a strategy used

when someone needed to be shaken up.

My first Shock by Vincenzo was aimed at…

demolishing what he thought was my mask,

my intellectual, high-brow appearance,

my unusual way of dressing.

I had given him some of my writings from when I was 18,

which I really treasured because they showed a deep…

existential crisis.

I wanted him to read them.

He took them home with him.

The day of the Shock, he walked in…

the dining hall with this bundle of papers,

and he said, "I want to read you some writing from one of your mates here."

So he started to…

to read some extracts of my writings, which were full of despair,

with quite an ironic tone,

as in, "Listen to this. Who does he think he is, God?"

And it was all part of the plan aimed at…

breaking this mask, which he believed I was wearing,

as if I'd borrowed my personality,

and give me back my true identity,

which, as it happened, was the one shaped by the commune.

Bare, defenseless, and fragile, just then you could have been welcomed

like the prodigal son.

How often do I think about Vincenzo?

Hmm.

At the beginning, he was like a father to me, my life.

Hmm.

But after many years, I found myself in a crazy position

where I had to defend myself from the person who saved me.

But the love I received when I entered San Patrignano had calmed me down.

I knew I was loved,

because we didn't have any other affection.

We had lost everything with heroin.

For a fix, we had lost the concept of love, routine, discipline.

And he embodied all this.

The problems for us come from the outside, from those who oppose us,

from those who deny us permits to move forward,

the best way we can, to improve and expand our buildings.

Even the local council is raising obstacles against us.

[leaves rustling]

[dog barking]

[dramatic string music playing]

[man] I was a communist mayor.

Ours was a town of 6,000 people.

And what were the issues?

The expansion of that community, which, in fact, was a working farm,

brought lots of problems: sewage, transportation.

And there was another dilemma.

I issued an injunction to prevent building without a permit,

because the commune kept expanding,

covering the whole hill.

[Muccioli] They think we're engaged in property speculation,

but anyone can come and see.

The accusers are welcome to come and see for themselves.

Our gates are open, as you can see.

[reporter] What do you think of San Patrignano?

That commune creates some troubles for the authorities,

for social, health, and safety reasons.

We worry that they haven't got adequate infrastructures for their guests.

Until people can fully grasp what this social evil, heroin, really is,

they will never understand what this place is about.

They will never understand our life here.

"Drug addicts should all be executed."

This is what people used to say on the streets.

This is a small town in the countryside, and people are a bit…

How can I put it?

Not really scared, but…

suspicious.

[Pierini] In Coriano especially, people would talk about Muccioli's past.

He was seen as a bizarre character.

He had this small farm on the hill

where he would try to run a business and gather animals.

[animals bleating]

[Boschini] San Patrignano had become an uncomfortable reality.

Uncomfortable because back then, the person who helped the outcasts

was usually a priest.

So the fact that he was a layman

raised suspicions.

Why does he do it? What's behind it?

People were looking for an exploitation somewhere.

The local gossip included anecdotes of Muccioli's past failures

and portrayed him as a con man, basically.

There was a story going around

about him going to the bank to pay a check

after he opened a business,

but instead of paying it, he ate it there, so…

not really what you would expect.

San Patrignano had some enemies who did not even know

what the place was really about,

what people were doing there, and who my father really was.

[bell tolling]

[Pierini] Vincenzo Muccioli was from Rimini,

from a middle class family of farmers.

[Vincenzo Muccioli] Living among birds, dogs, and vineyards,

watching my grandfather help calves come to life in the stables without a vet…

And…

all these experiences

have shaped me.

[bells tolling]

[Muccioli] Vincenzo was the kind of older brother

who would keep me under his wing.

He was respectful of me

because I did quite well in school,

whereas he didn't

and was a bit jealous.

He decided that he wouldn't go to university

because he couldn't even graduate from high school.

He was more of a womanizer than a loafer.

He attended various private schools and was forced to repeat the school year,

but his heart wasn't in it.

I, on the other hand, got a degree in geology.

[Nigro] When I interviewed Vincenzo,

he told me of his relationship with his father.

He felt humiliated and misunderstood.

Um…

He believed his brother was the favorite son.

Um…

He felt frustrated with his family.

Vincenzo then met Antonietta.

[bird squawking]

And he took an interest in her family's hotel.

They owned one of the oldest hotels in Rimini, La Stella Polare.

[Pierini] Basically, farmers discovered the tourism industry,

and he was one of the people looking for an alternative lifestyle.

The idea of mass tourism was born in Rimini.

Rimini has always attracted criminality

because of its economic dynamics

like tourism, the beach, night clubs.

It was a reference point for all the criminals around Italy.

As a wedding gift,

Antonietta's father gave them

a little farm, San Patrignano.

-[rooster crows] -So he gave up the hotel business.

He started breeding dogs,

because he always loved animals.

Then he had chickens,

-thousands of them. -[chickens clucking]

[rooster crows]

[thunder crashes]

But disaster struck during a storm

where most of the chickens died when the roof collapsed on them.

And he spent several days trying to sell dead chickens.

[thunder rumbles]

I used to do a lot of things,

because I've always had many interests and I am a very active person.

Vincenzo was always drawn to esoteric rites and things like that,

like my mother used to tell me.

He joined a group of spiritualists.

[man speaking indistinctly]

He was determined to become a medium.

[man speaking indistinctly]

[inhales deeply]

He had put together a group of people

who would practice seances…

[group speaking indistinctly]

…and record on tapes

the messages spoken by the alleged spirits that had been evoked.

And he founded the commune of San Patrignano with this group,

as a cooperative.

[Nigro] It was a fact that, according to the many stories,

he would present himself like the man with the stigmata on his hands.

He had an inner circle with 12 followers,

just like in the gospel,

and this was quite eccentric.

They cured people with potions and things like that.

And then later, they started curing drug addicts.

So we started to help…

the outcasts, then…

our commune became a place for drug addicts

simply because those people

needed our help the most.

We had a lot of requests from them,

especially after the first successful cases.

San Patrignano wasn't made in a day.

There was a long preparation phase, chiefly spiritually and psychologically,

which was quite hard.

I remember that, more than once,

I found my mother

crying into the pillow in her bedroom.

She always knew that it would be a painful process

to give up her husband and for me to give up my father.

My mom used to go back and forth between our house and San Patrignano.

We used to go there on weekends, but my father was so overwhelmed

by the guys' problems,

that he couldn't physically spend any time with us.

I don't remember ever feeling annoyed.

Maybe a bit jealous,

uh, because they could spend time with my father but I couldn't.

They had taken him away from me.

[gentle piano music playing]

[Muccioli] I remember my father

talking to my mom about whether to give it all up.

He said to her,

"Antonietta, look…

This is too much for us.

We can still go back now.

Soon it'll be too late.

But now we can still change things."

But my mom…

[sighs]

…categorically said…

I felt, deep down, that I couldn't keep…

ignoring the suffering of other people, as if it had nothing to do with me.

[Andrea Muccioli] Those people were our family.

It had become simply that.

That is what it was for me too.

To me, the guys at San Patrignano were really like brothers and sisters.

Initially, the guys who were at San Patrignano,

if they had behaved well, on Saturdays,

they were rewarded with money and a car to go out,

to go clubbing or to go get a pizza, etc.

[disco music playing]

What did that mean?

That they would go out and get high.

They would come back high as a kite,

and they would go to sleep trying to hide their state.

[disco music continues]

They were the ones who went to my father and told him,

"Vincenzo, we're drug addicts.

If you give us money and a car,

you're lucky if we don't sell the car.

If we're let out, we'll get high.

If you want to save us, you should not let us out.

The guys themselves told me,

"Please, if we try to run away, stop us. Never let us go.

We come here to be helped. Outside there are only the streets."

[Delogu] I always wanted to escape.

Whenever I was going into Rimini and saw the pharmacy sign,

it would take my mind straight to the syringe.

I escaped a couple of times, but they found me and took me back.

[Mini] Your mind keeps saying, "I need drugs. I want to get a dose,"

even though you could die. Because,

heroin is an evil calling you and…

leading you to death.

In the first year, I used to run away quite often.

And Vincenzo would come and pick me up…

When I think about the time I ran away, then stopped along the road to get my fix…

I got back to Verona in the middle of the night,

my mom let me in,

and I found Vincenzo Muccioli in the living room waiting for me…

That totally astonished me.

I felt like that person really loved me.

We have a duty towards these guys,

and that's to give them the strength that they are missing

when their psychological addiction kicks in.

We follow them. We chase them. We pick them up.

Everyone here has escaped at least once.

Some of the guys escaping was a regular thing.

[dog barking]

They would generally escape at night.

Some even went in their pajamas,

barefoot, or not always dressed appropriately.

It was an unusual scenario.

[dog barking]

I remember this guy who spent three days in a tree

until they stopped looking for him.

[dog barking]

[Pierini] They would end up in the houses

of people who lived around there.

People who lived there and found them

would call San Patrignano and say, "We have one of your guys."

And they'd go and pick them up.

San Patrignano had security patrols.

They would pick up the runaways from the station by car

and bring them back.

They would be picked up and brought back to the commune,

uh, the easy way or the hard way.

From the start, though, he was clear about it.

If they escaped, it would be the hard way.

And I think it's this "hard way"

that caused San Patrignano all its troubles.

[Andrea Muccioli] My father made the decisions on what needed to be done.

Sometimes things were inevitable.

[Mini] Vincenzo would tell you, "I have to keep you

when you're weak and want to give in."

I warn them

that if I can't change their mind in any other way, I restrain them.

Because when they come asking me for help,

they are looking for that strength that they lack when it gets hard.

And this strength,

if I want to be sensible and coherent

with the promise I made to help them,

I have to give it to them, no matter what.

[dog barking]

[tense music playing]

But in order to do good, do any means justify the end?

Are there no limits?

Or do you also have to abide by the law and there is a limit?

[siren wailing]

Next, a story from Coriano, near Rimini.

[newswoman] The commune of San Patrignano in Coriano, near Rimini,

is at the center of a dramatic scandal.

I was 16 and I had just returned home from high school in Rimini,

and my mother took us to the bathroom, I remember that,

I'm not sure why the bathroom,

and she said to us,

"Your father has been arrested.

He's been accused of kidnapping."

[siren wailing]

What happened was that a girl

had been locked up for 15 days and managed to escape.

She went to the police and reported it.

She said that at San Patrignano,

there were four more people kept in chains in prison cells.

[dog barks]

[tense music continues]

[dog barks]

[dramatic instrumental music plays]

Subtitle translation by Angelica Lacetera