(ANS – Ivato) – After eight months of work, the Malagasy version of the Don Bosco film is ready. The film, produced by LUX Vide in 2004 and directed by Lodovico Gasparini, will be transmitted on Madagascan national television to coincide with the arrival of the casket of Don Bosco on 16th August. ANS interviewed Fr Luca Treglia, director of Radio Don Bosco, who was responsible for the dubbing.

How did Radio Don Bosco deal with the dubbing of the film?

First of all I would like to thank my colleagues at the radio station who agreed to work together on this project. It is an act of homage from our station to Don Bosco, from whom we take our name. During the first preparatory meeting for the pilgrimage of the casket the idea came up of adding Malagasy sub-titles to the Italian version. I pointed out that many people did not yet know how to read and write and that their televisions had small screens which would make it difficult for people to follow the film and read the sub-titles. I floated the idea of getting it dubbed in Malagasy. I set about contacting Lux Vide, owners of the film, and I owe them my special thanks for making available the international master copy. Then we translated the text and adapted it to the Madagascan culture. I tried to understand and study the technique of dubbing. I had never done any dubbing before, although amateur video has always been my favourite hobby. Once we had found out the way to do it and the software we would need, we began our great adventure.

Were there any difficult times during the work?

Of course. At a personal level, we had just started the dubbing sessions when news arrived that my father had been taken into hospital. As the situation was serious I had to go back to Italy, where I arrived just in time to see my father still alive. After his death I stayed with my mother for a couple of weeks … Inevitably my mind and my heart began to turn to the film we had to dub. When I got back to Ivato I found my colleagues a bit discouraged because of the slow progress. I rolled up my sleeves and did my best to work up enthusiasm … and things started up again. Another difficult but wonderful time, typically Salesian I would say, was working with the boys. A film about Don Bosco has to have boys in it. We needed boys’ voices for dubbing the crowd scenes. We turned to our Notre Dame de Clairvaux Centre which works for boys from poor and difficult backgrounds. We taught them how to act … which was exhausting at times. There were about thirty boys in the recording studio. In the end all the hard work paid off.

The film has so many actors: where did you get them from?

One of the things which scared us at first was the number of actors, but we were not put off. Our radio station already has a team of actors who are involved in radio dramas which are much appreciated by our listeners, but they were not enough. We roped in other staff from the station, service personnel,  journalists, managers, even the caretaker, the gardener, the cook … And the final result was very good. It wasn’t just us, but the Italian technicians who took care of the synchronisation and who improved the quality of the dubbing. I must thank Don Bosco Missions and their technicians who produced the final version and who were at hand during every stage of the work.

Don Bosco will soon be arriving in Madagascar. How are people reacting to this event?

There is a lot of expectancy and enthusiasm. Don Bosco is known as ‘Radio Don Bosco’. We have tried to make him known as a person through publications: for children we have translated the comic book by Teresio Bosco and Alarico Gattia into the Malagasy language. We have produced a large number of radio and television programmes on Don Bosco, on his charism and on the work of the Salesians in Madagascar. And now we also have this film which will certainly make him better known.

The wonderful thing is that not only the Madagascan Church, but the entire population of Madagascar is ready to welcome Don Bosco.

Published 13/8/2012