“Back to Life”: Giovanni Allevi talks about myeloma in a touching film born in the hospital (and dedicated to his sister)

When Giovanni Allevi discovered he had myeloma in 2022, the world suddenly stopped. Between hospitals and therapies, the pianist transformed pain into music, giving life to a concert for cello and orchestra entitled MM22. A work born in the hospital bed, with the computer on my legs and the drip attached, without hair and without the certainty that the therapy would have an effect.

That period suspended between fear and hope became the beating heart of the documentary Back to Lifedirected by Simone Valentini and presented at the Rome Film Festival. The film follows Allevi’s journey between fragility and strength, between awareness of the disease and the profound desire to be reborn through music.

A tribute to her sister Stella

The most intense moment of the docufilm is dedicated to Maria Stella, the composer’s older sister, who passed away in July 2022, a few weeks after her brother’s diagnosis. For her, Allevi feels infinite gratitude. Stella was a woman of great culture: two degrees, a diploma in piano, a sharp mind that had introduced him to Leopardi, Poe and Kant. When criticism came, she was the one who defended him with profound words and musicological arguments. The two were extremely close, it is not for nothing that watching this film causes him great emotion.

Rebirth and conquered simplicity

The documentary film is also a reflection on artistic freedom and the value of life. During the presentation, Allevi said he understood how ephemeral everything else is:

When I felt the concrete possibility of my end, I asked myself: what could the words of a criticism ever be worth? Now all that matters is what I want to do, what I feel in my heart. If the applause doesn’t come, that’s okay too. It’s liberating.

Director Valentini explained that it all started from a spontaneous impulse, with Allevi who went to him to tell him some things and from there there was the first unexpected interview. From that disarming sincerity he was born Back to Lifean intimate story, where illness is not just pain, but transformation and rebirth after a period of profound darkness.

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