ILVA FOOTBALL CLUB

*"Once upon a time there was a football pitch in the middle of the neighbourhood, one of those suburban squares that leave your mark on your knees for a lifetime, with goals made of construction pipes, nets stolen by fishermen and cigarette butts scattered along the metal fence to keep the fans company. There, where almost everyone dreamed of becoming a footballer. In this "arena for gladiators" played a team of eleven men who went out on the pitch without great expectations and had no idea of the fate that awaited them. This is the story of an incredible triumph, an impossible goal at the last minute and the dream called ILVA FOOTBALL CLUB." *

In the production ILVA FOOTBALL CLUB, the story of Europe's largest steel mill interweaves with the legend of a small team that was founded right under the chimneys of Ilva to tell the story of a city that was systematically sacrificed. A city that today is Taranto, but tomorrow could also be another city, to show that what happens there affects everyone much more than is imaginable.

ILVA FOOTBALL CLUB is the result of detailed research by the company "Usine Baug". All texts come from historical archives, documentations and interviews conducted in Taranto. The ensemble has been fortunate to be able to work actively on site, thanks to the collaboration with various institutions, but also thanks to the collaboration of Pietro Pingitore as a documentary filmmaker and visual anthropologist. ILVA FOOTBALL CLUB uses the football narrative (which is also interesting for non-football fans) to tell the life and history of the city of Taranto, which is closely linked to the history of the former Ilva: the largest and most polluting steel mill in Europe. With lightness and irony, the production analyzes the more than 60-year history of the Steel Center and shows how the promise of progress and prosperity has slowly turned into disillusionment, anger, imprisonment and blackmail. The drama condenses into a dilemma: health or work.

**Real Background:**
In 2022, Taranto is officially listed as a sacrificial zone in a United Nations report. Sacrifice zones are areas that, in the name of progress, represent "the worst imaginable neglect of a state's obligation: to respect, protect and realize the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment". Young people in particular are vulnerable to the negative effects of pollution and toxic substances, which cause more than 1 million premature deaths in children under 5 years of age. This is where the research of the directorial collective Usine Baug & Fratelli Maniglio comes in.

In «Ilva football club» la storia della più grande acciaieria d'Europa s'intreccia alla leggenda di una piccola squadra nata proprio sotto le ciminiere dell'Ilva.