Moretti’s sweet volleyball obsession. A love called Budavari

In “Palombella rossa” he was the number 1 danger: “Marca Budavari!”, ordered the coach Silvio Orlando, worried; “Brand Budavari!”, he repeated, alarmed; “Marca Budavari!”, he implored, desperate. In “Il sol dell’avvenir” it is the sign of the “Circus Budavari” in a working class district of Rome in the 1950s. Imre Budavari, the sweet volleyball obsession of Nanni Moretti.

Sixty-six years old, from Budapest, a pillar of that Vasas who was in water polo like Real Madrid in football, European and world silver with the Hungarian national team who was in water polo like Brazil in football, Budavari was in water polo like Gigi Riva in football. Unmarkable. He filled swimming pools, dictated the law, made history. Until in 1985 he arrived in Italy, in Arenzano. Alessandro Mostes: “Almond-shaped eyes, sloping mustache, ponytail. He was scared. In the water, a power never seen before. Ambidextrous, same strength and explosiveness. Before the defenders took measures, he had already mortgaged the game. It didn’t take him long to settle in. Starting with the focaccia”. Two years in Arenzano, another two in Nervi. Gianni Uras: “Perhaps he had already given his best, but what he continued to give was so much. Once I thought I caught a glimpse of but-where-did-I-go, maybe he even said it, but in Hungarian, so it’s as if we’ve never heard him. It didn’t take him long to Italianize himself. Starting with a town where he lived, all of them, at most a hundred meters away. Bakery, fish shop, ice cream shop. Promenade, marina. And swimming pool”.

It was in this period that Moretti shot “Palombella rossa”, the scene on the promenade right in Nervi. “I remember, one day, I was a child, I was a few years old and they had taken me with the team of adults, with these shoulder bags, on the promenade of Nervi – said Michele Apicella, alias Nanni Moretti, in the film released in 1989 – At a At one moment, around the bend, far out over the harbour, we saw the swimming pool. Well, in that moment, I was happy”. Francesco Pastore: “A day and a half to shoot 30 times, all translated into a single 15-second scene in which I don’t even appear. Sixties-seventies hair and overalls to be believable, back and forth eating focaccia to be even more believable. It was then that Budavari conquered Moretti”. Uras: “The other scenes were shot in the swimming pool of Acireale Terme, which was put back into operation thanks to the film. And Budavari was the only one from Nervi to go there”. Moretti, a former polo player in Lazio, in the film with blue cap number 5 (and white Budavari number 4) seemed to become attached to Nervi. Uras: “Once we were playing in Rome, he stopped by the hotel to say hello. It was clear that Budavari was his favourite.”

Alfio Misaggi, three Olympics with Settebello: “Budavari played center forward, but also winger. Correct, he made himself respected, but if you played dirty, some ‘nocks’ would get to you. A broken nose, a black eye… If you stood behind him, he either scored or got you sent off. If you stood in front of him, he moved you. He wasn’t lightning fast when he swam, but lightning fast when he loaded and fired. His shot was deadly ”. And in “Palombella rossa” a right foot from him breaks the crossbar. Uras: “He Prepared goulash and invited us to his house to eat it. High quality and industrial doses”. Pastore: “Training in Genoa, Albaro swimming pool, Nervi against Arenzano. Budavari suffered a fortuitous blow, two of his teeth knocked out, he raised his arm to suspend the game, then dived, searched for and found the two front teeth, resurfaced, handed them to the coach and signaled to start playing again. The next day a dentist gave him back a smile that, in the meantime, he hadn’t lost ”. Pastore again: “One day Imre challenged us. He sat on the edge of the pool and invited us to throw him into the water. One, two, three, four, four against one. We didn’t succeed. We tried again. Nothing. We tried again, even catching him off guard. Nothing. Until he tried to console us: ‘Don’t worry, don’t take it, they’ve been trying for years in Hungary as well and they’ve never succeeded.’

And Budavari is back in Hungary. Law graduate, lawyer, master’s coach. But no Circus.