30th Film Festival of Lessinia Bosco Chiesanuova 22 - 31 August 2025

“CAPTAIN TONI. APOSTLE OF FREEDOM.” These words are engraved on the memorial in Lizzano in Belvedere, where Antonio Giuriolo was killed in action on December 12, 1944, struck by machine-gun fire on Monte Belvedere, a stronghold of the Gothic Line. But what remains of his legacy is not only inscribed in stone: above all, it lives on in the powerful example of a man who made liberty his religion. Born in Castello Arzignano, in the hills of the Chiampo Valley, near Vicenza, Giuriolo learned the values of altruism and antifascism at a young age from his father. After the armistice of September 8, 1943, he took to the mountains. For his fellow fighters, young men raised in the conformism of fascist ideology, he was “Captain Toni,” a teacher of critical thought. The documentary reconstructs Giuriolo’s life through testimonies from his descendents and scholars, historical research conducted by two students, archival materials, and footage of the Little Dolomites and the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines.