Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Arts myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.When the documentarian David Modigliani was five years old, his grandfather Franco Modigliani was awarded a Nobel Prize. Franco, who died in 2003 aged 85, was an Italian economist and professor hailed for his pioneering research in economic theory. The prize \u2014 a gold medallion with Alfred Nobel\u2019s face on it \u2014 is now stored at David\u2019s father\u2019s house.\u00a0But there is more to Franco\u2019s story than a prestigious award, as revealed in Modigliani\u2019s compelling and cinematic new podcast Pack One Bag. A family biography of sorts, it began life as a single-episode project called Shalom, Amore, which won the Jury Award for Nonfiction Audio at the 2023 Tribeca Festival. Now expanded to 10 episodes, it\u2019s an epic tale spanning generations and continents and taking in love, war, fascism, a dramatic escape and a family torn apart.\u00a0While Franco was alive, his grandson had always meant to record his story, though, much to his regret, they never found the time. Nonetheless, Franco and his wife Serena, who met when they were in their teens, left behind a vast archive of letters, photographs and personal diaries. In this collection, Modigliani makes some remarkable discoveries. There are the love letters Franco wrote to Serena as a young man: when the couple first met, she instructed him to wait three months before seeing her again, during which he wrote a letter to her every day. There are also missives from two US presidents \u2014\u00a0Carter and Clinton \u2014\u00a0paying tribute to Franco\u2019s professional achievements.\u00a0Most startlingly, there is a letter from Benito Mussolini. Before Il Duce embarked on a political career, he was a journalist who founded a socialist newspaper. Modigliani\u2019s great-grandfather on his grandmother\u2019s side, Giulio Calabi, had begun a publishing business after the first world war, and agreed to assist Mussolini in his new enterprise by distributing his paper. Had he declined to do that, would the course of history have been different? Perhaps not, but the fact of Modigliani\u2019s great-grandfather\u2019s connection with the future dictator remains a clear cause for discomfort.\u00a0There is another unexpected appearance here: that of actor Stanley Tucci, who plays the part of Giulio in dramatised segments that give voice to Modigliani\u2019s forebears. In lesser hands, these segments might have felt awkward and superfluous, but are in fact humanising and evocative. The series goes on to document the changing political winds in Italy and the racial laws imposed by Mussolini curbing the freedoms of Italian Jews. These prompted Giulio to put plans in motion for his and his family\u2019s escape.As Modigliani makes clear at the start, his family\u2019s story remains relevant as people and groups around the world face persecution and seek to start new lives elsewhere. It\u2019s no wonder he and Tucci are working on developing the story for the screen. Theirs is a remarkable tale of tragedy and survival, told with eloquence and style.lemonadamedia.com\/show\/pack-one-bag<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Arts myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.When the documentarian David Modigliani was five years old, his grandfather Franco Modigliani was awarded a Nobel Prize. Franco, who died in 2003 aged 85, was an<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-114234","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-culture"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114234"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114234\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":114235,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114234\/revisions\/114235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}