[string music playing]
[man] I am Vittorio Emanuele.
Vittorio Emanuele of Savoy.
There!
They call me "the prince."
[string music continues]
[crowd cheering]
"You'll be king," my mother told me.
My mother enjoyed playing card games and reading tarot cards.
She gave me tarot card readings
and told me, "Let's see if you'll be king."
Then, she said, "Yes, you will."
I never believed it, and I was right.
[laughing]
Sorry, but it makes me laugh.
[continues laughing]
- [suspenseful music playing] - [siren wailing]
[reporter 1 in Italian] Vittorio Emanuele of Savoy has been arrested.
[reporter 2] The allegations are heavy.
[reporter 3] He basically confessed to the murder of a young man...
[man 2 in English] Darkness, the island, the shots...
- [suspenseful music continues] - [camera clicking]
[in Italian] "Come quick, your brother has been wounded. The prince did it."
[gun fires]
[bell tolling]
[reporter 4] Dirk Geerd Hamer has died.
The "shooting prince," as the French press has referred to him,
is looking at a 20-year sentence.
[intriguing music playing]
[Birgit] After that, very weird things happened.
They said, with your money and power, you managed to get the trial postponed.
No. I don't see how.
[tense music playing]
[dramatic whooshing]
[Vittorio] Somebody shot that poor boy with a gun.
It wasn't my rifle.
- [cameras clicking] - [tense music intensifies and stops]
How come he's suddenly innocent, after obviously being guilty all along?
- [dramatic whoosh] - [tense music playing]
[Birgit in English] My name is Birgit Hamer, and I will seek justice.
That's a promise.
[suspenseful music playing]
For seventeen years I've had to defend myself from all those who wanted
like in a bullring, the death of the bull.
But the bull has horns.
[upbeat music playing]
THE KING WHO NEVER WAS
[crown rattling]
[plane whirring]
[gun fires]
[upbeat music continues]
[handcuffs clicking]
[cameras clicking]
[music fades]
[solemn music playing]
[Emanuele Filiberto] When I was a kid, I remember my grandfather came to see us.
After saying hi to him, I turned around.
My father grabbed me and said to me,
"Never turn your back on the king."
[film projector rolling]
I consider my father to be the last witness to a great story.
EMANUELE FILIBERTO OF SAVOY VITTORIO EMANUELE'S SON
He's the king's son.
- [solemn music continues] - [film projector continues rolling]
My great-grandfather made the terrible mistake
of signing the racial laws.
At the end of the war, he was forced to abdicate in favor of his son Umberto,
my grandfather.
The new king found himself managing a wounded and troubled monarchy.
And that's when he decided to call an institutional referendum.
[solemn music continues]
Before the referendum, there was a huge rally in the square.
- [crowd cheering] - I was on the balcony with my family.
And I was sure we were going to win, because I thought,
"So many people, that's the whole of Italy!"
I wasn't even nine at the time.
VOTE FOR THE MONARCHY
[reporter in Italian] Wednesday, June 5th.
The Republic is leading by two million votes.
Italy is a republic.
[in English] After the referendum in '46 with the exile law,
the Savoy family wasn't immediately allowed to return to Italy,
in order to strengthen the republic,
which had won by roughly two million votes,
even though still now, no one knows where those votes came from.
- [film projector rolling] - [solemn music continues]
[reporter in Italian] This is the last image of King Umberto in Italy,
already on the plane.
[plane whirring]
[in English] When we were exiled,
everyone turned on us.
They were criticizing my father, me...
But there was little to criticize about me because I hadn't done anything.
[film projector rolling]
They told us, "Don't worry, the exile will be very short."
"You can leave everything here."
[film projector clicking and rolling]
30 YEARS LATER
[man in Italian] Emanuele Filiberto, how do you picture Italy?
I picture it as a wonderful country, even if I've never been.
Even if I've never seen it, I've read many books about it.
[fanfare playing in the distance]
[man] Princess, what's your most fervent wish?
It would be for my whole family to be able to return to Italy.
Especially my son, who has never seen his home country.
[fanfare intensifies]
[Emanuele Filiberto in French] This is our house.
CAVALLO ISLAND CORSICA, FRANCE
[in English] The Savoy House.
[in French] Over there is my mother's bedroom. Marina?
[fanfare continues]
[in English] The holidays I spent in Cavallo were amazing.
[dramatic whoosh]
I did all sorts of things there.
[gun fires]
[Emanuele Filiberto whispering in French] We have to be very quiet.
[screaming]
[Emanuele Filiberto] Busted.
- [dramatic whoosh] - [music fades]
I'll show you some landscapes of Cavallo.
And some beaches. Thank you.
That is our famous dinghy, the Zodiac.
And that's Palma beach. A very beautiful beach.
- [boat whirring] - [intriguing music playing]
And now, the "Corridor of Death."
You can't really see, but the seabed is full of rocks.
Over there you can see many boats that have lost their propellers.
Here they are, the propellers.
[intriguing music continues]
And in the distance, you can see Sardinia.
[Vittorio in English] I've always wondered why I wasn't allowed to go there.
[music stops]
Especially since...
[chuckles lightly]
...it was right there.
["Luglio" by Riccardo Del Turco playing]
1978 PORTO ROTONDO, SARDINIA
Porto Rotondo was a microcosm.
["Luglio" continues]
I remember people didn't even lock their homes.
[waves crashing]
We were a group of about 30 people in our early twenties...
AURELIA CANTUTI WITNESS
...on summer holiday in Sardinia, and it was the late '70s.
["Luglio" continues]
I had met this boy, who would then become my husband, in 1978.
OLIVIA CHAPPERON WITNESS
It was my first holiday in Porto Rotondo.
[man] Olivia!
[Chapperon] Nicky Pende was a real playboy.
He was competing with Luca to see who could get with me first.
We were on holiday in Sardinia with a group of friends...
MASSIMO TOSATO WITNESS
...and that day we'd been invited by Giovanni Malagò to go on his boat.
We would often spend the night out and sleep in one of the places...
GIOVANNI MALAGÒ WITNESS
...that was considered the coolest by our group of friends on vacation.
That is exactly what had happened when we had made the decision,
with some other friends who had boats, to travel to Cavallo.
[eerie music playing]
On August 17th, 1978.
[eerie music intensifies]
We were 25 or 30 people on three boats.
Everyone was already at the harbor.
Most of them had girlfriends at the time, but Gianfranco and I were single
and wanted to invite a few girls to join us.
We bumped into this girl we barely knew from Rome.
Her name was Birgit.
She was very pretty.
[Birgit] When I was 15, some photographers discovered me in the street in Hamburg...
[eerie music continues]
...and immediately invited me to take a lot of pictures and... and more and more.
- [camera clicks] - To me it was just a new adventure.
It was nice and funny.
Life seemed to me a sequence of wonderful, amazing adventures.
[announcer] One very lucky girl is going to be crowned Miss Universe!
- [motivational music playing] - Miss Germany!
- [celebratory music playing] - [crowd applauding]
Good evening. My name's Birgit Hamer. I'm from Heidelberg.
[Tosato] So I said, "Join us for a boat ride."
"We'll be back by seven tonight."
Of course, when you're young, you don't worry about a thing. You think,
"Why not? Let's go on this boat trip."
So we went to her father to ask him if he'd let her come
on this trip to Cavallo.
MONICA MONTICELLI WITNESS
At first he said no. Then he agreed
but only if she brought her brother with her.
He wouldn't let her go by herself.
So, she happened to come with her brother.
Nothing was planned.
DIRK HAMER BIRGIT HAMER'S BROTHER
It seems incredible that, of all of the group, he was
not only the least likely to be there at that time on that day,
but in a way there was no logical reason for him to be there at all.
[ominous musical playing]
[woman] We could have either sailed north or south.
AMANDA SPOSITO WITNESS
Sure, Cavallo was pretty much the furthest point,
but it was the nicest trip.
The best one.
[man] It was essentially an Italian enclave
in the French territory.
People would go to Cavallo to talk to or visit the Savoy family.
UMBERTO ERCOLE WITNESS
[water splashing]
CAVALLO ISLAND CORSICA, FRANCE
We got there and dropped the anchor in a little bay...
GIORGIO GUGLIELMI WITNESS
...the only bay that was there.
[Guglielmi in Italian] Here we are, another day in Palma.
This wonderful bay in Palma.
[intriguing music playing]
[in English] We decided to play a bunch of games, like volleyball in the water.
We quickly found out this guy was the best out of everyone.
Dirk was an impressive guy, because he was kind, polite, athletic.
He spoke four languages.
He was truly an amazing person.
[Chapperon] Everyone was vying to get Dirk to join their team.
Dirk became one of us at that point.
[indistinct shouting]
[relaxing music playing]
- [indistinct shouting] - [happy screaming]
[Birgit] My brother was incredibly happy.
He loved being in the water.
[relaxing music continues]
You can tell when there's an Italian in a cove. They're loud.
MICHEL LEVAUFRE FORMER WATCHMAN OF CAVALLO
Three boats with a lot of people for such a quiet island.
[water splashing]
[in Italian] I'd rather drink a bottle of beer
where 3,000 cigarettes were put out.
[man] How was the beer? [chuckling]
[boat engine revving]
Suddenly, we saw this motorboat heading straight towards us,
and as it got close to our boats, it would turn, rocking us with the waves.
We realized it was Vittorio Emanuele, who looked pretty angry with us
and probably thought to himself, "How dare you invade my territory?"
[boat engine revving]
People had this misconception about me.
They thought I was...
[dramatic music playing]
...a resentful person.
But...
the truth is
I wasn't always angry, and I enjoyed being around people.
[dramatic music continues]
[waves crashing]
[man] In the afternoon, they told us the sea was going to get very rough.
GIANFRANCO AMORUSO WITNESS
The wind had gotten extremely strong in the Bonifacio Strait.
[dramatic music continues]
They told us that we couldn't go back today because it was too dangerous.
And I had nothing but my bikini. I had nothing on me.
[eerie music playing]
We had no clue what to do and ended up deciding to eat at the restaurant.
[Guglielmi] There were only our three boats
and then the boat of His Majesty Vittorio Emanuele
anchored in the bay, without anyone onboard.
There was a small dinghy tied behind the boat.
[eerie music continues]
So, to get from our boats to the shore,
I suggested we just take the dinghy that was right there.
[eerie music continues]
We had just taken
this tiny three-foot-long dinghy that belonged to the prince's son.
[eerie music intensifies]
And everything was fine, everyone was having fun.
There were no problems till that night.
[engine revving]
RESTAURANT DES PECHEURS
[Marina in Italian] Vittorio. Hi.
- Oh, it's you. - [Marina laughing]
What are you doing? [chuckles]
[in English] Vittorio Emanuele was sitting at a table with his family.
[indistinct conversations]
[Marina] That night, we were at a little restaurant on Cavallo Island,
and some young Italians came in.
They started saying, "Oh, Vittorio Emanuele is here."
Long story short, they were making fun of us.
[indistinct conversations continue]
[Monticelli] The prince was there with his wife, and they were almost done.
They gave us dirty looks for making a lot of noise.
I understood because there was a lot of us and we weren't exactly quiet.
They were already showing signs of being annoyed.
"Bloody Italians," he was saying things like that.
"Shut up, this is my island."
[suspenseful music playing]
Around 11, it was dark. Nothing going on, no clubs, nothing.
We went to bed at 11:30, midnight at the latest.
Three boats weren't big enough for all of us.
We knew some of the people there,
and we were able to stay at our friends' empty house,
near Micangeli beach.
[suspenseful music continues]
And the others slept on the three boats as best they could.
The dinghy was still where we'd left it.
[suspenseful music intensifies]
We took the girls back with the dinghy, and the others swam to the boats.
I went to bed, and then, I think a couple of hours later,
Nicky Pende got into the same boat.
But he went to sleep in another bed, towards the front of the boat.
[woman] We improvised that night.
Most of us squeezed into the bow of the boat.
Dirk and Vittorio Guglielmi slept in the dinette.
FABIANA BALESTRA WITNESS
There were two berths, staggered at different heights.
Vittorio slept on the lower one, and Dirk slept on the other one in front,
which was a little higher.
[Guglielmi] My brother tried to wake Dirk up, and Dirk was a very tall boy.
He was all huddled up and looked uncomfortable.
But he didn't wake up.
[sad music playing]
And Vittorio just went to bed.
[water splashing]
[suspenseful music playing]
[in Italian] I went home, and I saw that my little boat had disappeared.
So I took another boat, and I went to get it back.
And since after all, in Corsica,
danger is almost always around the corner, I took my rifle with me.
[suspenseful music continues]
- [Birgit in English] Suddenly, I heard... - [air hissing]
[Birgit hissing]
A noise like an oxygen tank being opened.
And then someone started yelling...
[in Italian] "You thieves! You bunch of assholes! Shitty Italians!"
"Shitty Italians! I'll kill you all!"
[in English] Eventually, Nicky Pende went out to see who it was.
[in Italian] I ask, "Who is it?" This person gets up.
I could only see his head and shoulders, as he is standing on the dinghy.
NICKY PENDE WITNESS
He starts mumbling nonsensical, delirious things, threats...
He's holding a rifle. I am unarmed.
He's pointing it at me. I see the rifle raising in my direction.
I can see the eye of the rifle in line with my face.
So, I instinctively throw myself to the ground.
- And... - And you heard the two shots?
As I hit the ground, I felt the burst of heat
and two gunshots passing over my head.
[rifle fires twice]
[in English] So I did the only logical thing to me.
[splashing]
I threw him and his rifle into the water to disarm him.
[tense music playing]
[flare sizzling]
Nicky Pende was shouting, "Someone's shooting at us."
It was a huge mess,
shots and screams.
We saw boats around us shooting flares in the air.
[tense music continues]
"Help! Someone is shooting! Gunshots! Gunshots!"
"But who fired the shots? Where from? Why?"
[tense music continues]
People were shouting from the beach, "Someone's shooting!"
Those who were on the boat didn't know whether to lie down, to hide, or jump.
[Guglielmi] My brother had a gun, a registered one.
It was legal. Still, there was a gun on his boat.
[dramatic synth music playing]
Vittorio Guglielmi shouted, "I'll shoot him!" "I'll shoot him!"
At that point, I grabbed the gun and ran to hide downstairs.
[adventurous music playing]
I left the Micangeli house. I walked around the beach,
and I saw a shadow approaching in the water.
It was a dinghy.
I realized it was Vittorio Emanuele
and asked, "Do you know what happened?"
He started to mumble some nonsense,
saying, "Ah, these Italian pigs! I taught them a lesson."
[dramatic synth music playing]
I didn't know what had happened.
And then he pulls a gun out from the dinghy.
[dramatic synth music intensifies]
[engine revving]
Less than two minutes later,
a car races onto the beach, right on the sand,
and his wife Marina gets out.
It was a woman's voice.
- [ominous music playing] - I can't recall her exact words.
"Victor, Victor. What are you doing?"
And his wife's yelling, "Victor, Victor, what have you done?"
[slamming]
- [air hissing] - [man in Italian] What happened?
[Vittorio in English] I dropped anchor. That's when that gentleman came out.
I was later informed his name was Pende. I didn't know at that point.
We got into a fight.
My first shot was fired in the air,
and the second was fired when he fell on top of me.
- [rifle fires twice] - [suspenseful music playing]
[dramatic whoosh]
[low synth music playing]
At the first gunshot,
we left the bow cabin.
And we saw Vittorio Guglielmi.
His legs were covered in glass shards.
From the cabin window, which had been shattered by the shot.
The glass had broken over his legs,
but the bullet had gone past his head,
hitting Dirk in his stomach.
Dirk was yelling and severely injured.
[somber piano playing]
Shouting for his mom.
Mmm.
[somber piano continues]
[in Italian] After a while, someone came in and said,
"Come quick, your brother's been wounded!"
"The prince did it." I say, "What? Who?"
I immediately rushed there, and I saw my brother
who was lying there, and I could see his belly swelling,
as it was filling with blood.
So, I immediately held him in my arms, and I started saying,
"Don't worry. You'll be okay."
Meanwhile, I was making sure he didn't see how worried I was.
I wanted to ask the others, "What now? Shall we take him to the hospital?"
[dramatic music playing]
[Levaufre in English] Prince Vittorio Emanuele and his wife
were devastated.
It was a real tragedy for them.
"Michel, what have I done?"
"I don't understand. I went there to scare them a little."
"I just wanted my dinghy back, that's all."
He was worried about the wounded boy.
"I hope it's not serious, just a scratch."
[dramatic music continues]
There was a doctor on the island,
so I went with the prince to see if we could wake him up.
The doctor who was sent to the boat to assess the seriousness of the situation
told them right away that the boy had to be taken to the hospital.
I don't think anybody had any arguments with that.
[Levaufre] Pende insisted that we hurry.
"We can't wait. We have to go to the hospital now."
But I waited a little.
[engine revving]
First I'm gonna get on the phone and call the Bonifacio police for help.
[upbeat synth playing]
That's when the...
frantic search for help started.
We were looking for a helicopter, anyone who could take him.
I kept telling everyone, "When is the helicopter coming?"
Please, when?"
We couldn't leave without someone's help.
Or we would have to wait until sunrise, so we could see the rocks.
There was no way to leave the island. It wasn't possible.
We had to wait for someone to help us get away.
And the person who was supposed to watch over the island, the keeper,
was nowhere to be found.
And he was one of their trusted personnel.
[dramatic music stops]
- [eerie music playing] - [birds squawking]
[Levaufre] I went back to the boat and told Pende, "Okay, let's go."
"But I don't speak Italian, so you'll have to listen to me carefully
because around Cavallo it's full of rocks beneath the surface."
[action music playing]
"I'll stand behind you."
"When I press left, you turn left. If I push hard, you take a sharp left."
We started slowly, but then he started to pick up speed.
I said, "Take it easy."
We slowed down, and once we passed the rocks, I said, "Go."
[action music intensifies]
[sirens wailing]
[Birgit in Italian] It was already dawn when we reached the hospital.
The doctor told us, "Fifteen minutes more, and this boy would have been dead."
MEDICAL EMERGENCY SERVICE
[in English] I remember we were all in this small waiting room,
and I was saying, "I have to call Mom now."
"We have to let her know."
"Mom."
"Something terrible has happened."
"Dirk has been shot."
[sad music playing]
After a long silence, she said,
"I knew it."
[music fades]
[mysterious music playing]
[man] I'm Alberto Pederzani.
ALBERTO PEDERZANI FRIEND OF VITTORIO EMANUELE DI SAVOIA
I'm a friend of Vittorio Emanuele
since we were at school together in Lausanne in 1954.
Since then, we've been inseparable.
Well, I wasn't there that night
because I had gone back to Porto Rotondo to fill up the boat's tank.
[mysterious music continues]
I got a call from a friend of mine,
Colnaghi, who was staying near the Hamer residence.
His mother and I sailed over there.
It took us
less than half an hour to reach the Porto Vecchio hospital.
- [waves crashing] - [boat engine revving]
[gloomy music playing]
CAVALLO ISLAND CORSICA, FRANCE
[man 2] I got to Cavallo Island
at around eight in the morning.
My name is Alain Monet.
ALAIN MONET FORMER POLICE OFFICER
I was a police officer in Bonifacio at the time of the incident.
[gloomy music continues]
Vittorio Emanuele had a diplomatic passport.
So it was necessary to inform the district attorney in Ajaccio
that he was evacuated by helicopter.
[helicopter whirring]
He was taken into custody and immediately questioned.
[reporter in Italian] GR2. Breaking news.
[reporter 2] Vittorio Emanuele said Mr. Pende
jumped on his boat from the vessel.
That's when the prince allegedly fired a warning shot in the air with his rifle.
A second shot, the one that wounded the German boy, was fired accidentally.
The prince is now in prison in Ajaccio.
- [gloomy music playing] - [keys rattling]
[door closing]
[somber music playing]
PORTO VECCHIO CORSICA, FRANCE
[Birgit in English] When my mother arrived...
SIGRID HAMER DIRK HAMER'S MOTHER
...it was hard to describe the expression on her face.
Since my mother was a doctor,
she spent the whole time in the operating room
with the emergency surgeon.
[somber music continues]
Then, the boy's father, who happened to be a very controversial doctor,
decided to have him transferred from the hospital.
[Birgit] The following day, he had to be transported to Marseille
because the small emergency room
in Porto Vecchio was not sufficiently equipped.
- [dramatic music playing] - [airplane engine whirring]
[airplane engine revving]
[dramatic music continues]
When we arrived at the Conception Hospital in Marseille,
my mother ran straight to the radiology ward.
Next thing I knew...
they were telling me
that his leg had to be amputated.
[dramatic music playing]
[reporter in Italian] GR 1 Flash.
[reporter 2] The German's conditions remains critical.
Doctors had to amputate his leg.
[reporter 3] The request to be released on parole submitted by the lawyers
of Vittorio Emanuele of Savoy has been rejected.
He will remain in custody in Ajaccio.
[in English] They didn't put me with the other inmates.
"You never know", they said.
They didn't want to be held accountable.
I was alone, and they put me
in the women's ward that was unoccupied.
[tense music playing]
CAVALLO ISLAND CORSICA, FRANCE
We decided to have a look around the boat ourselves
to see if we could find any sort of evidence.
[tense music continues]
We found a bullet casing that actually matched the gun's caliber.
We found it right where Vittorio Emanuele was supposedly shooting from.
They found two bullet casings underwater.
Both were mine.
[dramatic music playing]
Two security guards from the island showed up the next morning.
I don't think they were actual police officers.
They were just security guards who patrolled the island.
And...
And they kept insisting
that they get on the boat.
They got on the boat and started looking around,
trying to figure out what happened.
Then one of them asks, "Can we have a look downstairs?"
"Yes, yes, you can."
So they go down, look around for two minutes, and then they leave.
[dramatic music continues]
As soon as they left, I realized we still had our gun onboard.
I went to get it, and it had disappeared.
[dramatic music intensifies]
They had taken it from us.
[woman] I'm Stella Pende.
I'm Nicky Pende's first cousin.
We were at Porto Rotondo, and suddenly, he rushed towards us.
He had dark circles around his eyes, like a mask on his face.
STELLA PENDE COUSIN OF NICKY PENDE
He looked so alarmed.
I'd never seen him like that.
Considering all the emotional chaos going on, we tried not to panic,
and we decided to draw up some sort of...
map of the incident to get a sense of the whole thing.
Frankly, Nicky was in the best position to do it.
[gloomy music playing]
[reporter] "He shot before I had a chance to realize what was going on."
These are the words from Nicola Pende's statement
on the incident involving Vittorio Emanuele of Savoy...
AUGUST 22, 1978
...and Dirk Hamer, who was critically wounded.
Vittorio Emanuele, after meeting Nicky Pende...
GIANNI BARBACETTO JOURNALIST
...took responsibility for the incident
and even signed a formal plea, which read,
"I, Vittorio Emanuele of Savoy, acknowledge my legal liability
for the incident involving Mr. Hamer that occurred on August 18th, 1978."
[gloomy music continues]
[in Italian] What I mean is that, either way, a shot was fired in the air.
The other may have been fired accidentally when we fell into the water.
But what's incredible, it hit this poor boy who was inside,
perforating the bulkhead of the boat. Two boats. This one and this one.
It just went through. So it was all completely unintentional.
[reporter] Vittorio Emanuele of Savoy risks the Assize Court.
He could be sentenced up to ten years, should the wounded young German survive,
and 20 years in case he dies.
[intriguing music playing]
[in English] In prison,
I did some bookkeeping every week.
With the warden.
[chuckling]
I would also cook.
We used to cook a lot of veal stew.
The food in there was quite nice.
I would sunbathe a lot.
[Marina] It was already hard knowing a young man had been critically wounded.
Then my husband in prison for two months.
Emanuele had to go to school in Ajaccio during that time.
[sad music playing]
When things go well, you're always surrounded with people.
But as soon as things start going awry, they just abandon you.
This was one of those cases, and we were suddenly alone.
It was a really tough time.
[sad music intensifies]
[Emanuele Filiberto] We moved to Ajaccio, and so I had to take a break from school.
[music fades]
I don't think they ever told me the reason we were leaving Geneva so quickly
and then going to Ajaccio.
I'm pretty sure no one told me my dad was in prison.
[calm music playing]
I have a beautiful letter that my father wrote me.
He asked me about school and friends, stuff like that.
And then he says, "I'm still in Ajaccio with the police,
but soon I'll be released, and we'll go on a trip together by plane."
And he drew a little plane in the corner.
He was a fantastic father when I was a kid.
[calm music continues]
There's this thing he'd always tell me as a child.
"I want to give you the love I never got from my parents."
[Vittorio] It is hard...
to grow up alone.
You may get a good education, among other things.
But something fundamental is missing.
My father and love?
I think he never received love as a kid.
He was never shown affection.
[calm music continues]
I was closer to my mother.
[whirring]
I will always remember when my mother told me...
FROM THE BIOGRAPHY OF EMANUELE OF SAVOY "LIGHTNINGS OF LIFE"
..."You know, I love you very much, but I don't know how to express it."
"There's all this affection that I cannot show you."
That's because she had an extremely strict childhood.
They had been brought up as royals, as princes, in palaces.
That's all they knew.
[somber music playing]
My mother came to see me in prison.
She did.
She came to Ajaccio to visit me.
[somber music continues]
She said, "Don't worry. You'll be out soon."
[music fades]
[breathing heavily]
Meanwhile, Dirk was fighting for his life in the hospital.
[low action music playing]
I would tell him stories from our childhood,
trying to comfort him with nice memories.
In Rome, in the mornings, he would walk to the German school on Savoy Street,
and he would spend the afternoon working out and running at the Farnesina.
He had always loved sports as a child,
and at the same time, he had this passion for art.
[low dramatic music playing]
He loved painting,
and as a Christmas or a birthday gift,
he would always surprise us with a beautiful painting.
My favorite painting is the one of him portrayed as an old man.
I remember once, when they were preparing him for one of his 19 surgeries,
he did this gesture,
one of victory.
Then this girl arrived.
She was a wonderful girl that I had met in Rome.
I liked her very much, and she had come to see us in Heidelberg as well.
My mission was to distract her
from all this pain and this constant sense of emergency.
PAOLA MARZOTTO FRIEND OF BIRGIT HAMER
It was...
Her mother who once told me,
"Take her somewhere else. She can't stay here anymore."
[somber music playing]
So, Paola took me away from the hospital.
She then took me to Milan, where she had a small house.
And I remember
I kept looking at the phone, thinking,
"Please don't ring, please don't ring, please don't ring."
OCTOBER 6, 1978 AJACCIO, FRANCE
[lock rattling]
[in French] Prince Vittorio Emanuele of Savoy has been released.
Detained in Ajaccio for two months, he has been granted provisional release.
[action music playing]
[reporter] Prince, are you happy to be out?
- Yes, everything went really well. - [reporter] Yes.
In any case, I will always come back to your beautiful country,
despite such a regrettable incident.
[indistinct conversations]
[alarm ringing]
[dramatic music continues and fades]
[Birgit in English] I remember one night, the seventh of December,
the phone actually rang.
It was my mother, who said, "Birgit, come home."
"Should I come home?"
She said, "Yes."
"Yes."
That's all she said.
"Is it Dirk?" "Yes."
[bell tolling]
[mournful music playing]
DECEMBER 14, 1978 ROME, ITALY
I remember, I couldn't bring myself to go near his grave.
It was too definitive. "I can't go there."
"I can't. I can't. I can't."
[mournful music continues]
[people speaking Italian in background]
[bell tolling]
[mournful music intensifies]
[Ercole] As they lowered the coffin...
I looked at the casket, and I could only think,
"It's not fair."
The moment they close the coffin is always devastating.
At every funeral.
But with a 19-year-old boy,
it's unbearable. And for me...
[inhales deeply] ...I saw Birgit taking off her ring
and throwing it into the grave.
And it was horrible because
at the time I didn't know...
that it was actually going to be a wedding, a metaphorical one,
between Birgit and the death of her brother.
[mournful music continues]
Instinctively, I threw the ring into the open grave, as if to say,
"Listen, I will fight for justice."
[suspenseful music playing]
[suspenseful music crescendos and stops]
[man in Italian] If you had been given the chance to talk
to Dirk Hamer's father and mother,
what would you have told them?
I'm very sorry, but I don't know if I did it.
[ominous music playing]
[dramatic whoosh]
[suspenseful music playing]
[suspenseful music continues]
[music ends]