While dramas often leave us shedding a tear or two, we can’t resist a good story—and Netflix knows this well. With a lineup packed with productions in this genre for the remainding months of 2024, it has just released one of its most compelling titles.
“Everything Calls for Salvation” returns to the platform with its second season following a highly successful first run in 2022. The series centers on Daniele Cenni, a young man involuntarily committed to a psychiatric facility after a violent psychotic episode. Throughout the episodes, he grapples with his mental health struggles while forming connections with other patients, doctors, and nurses.
The story is so heart-wrenching and richly detailed that many viewers believe it can’t be purely fictional—and they’re right. Discover the real-life inspiration behind this powerful Netflix production.
‘Everything Calls for Salvation’ true story: Meet Daniele Mencarelli
The Italian series making waves on the platform is based on the autobiographical book of the same name by Daniele Mencarelli, published in 2020. The show adapts the narrative by placing the author’s persona at the center of the story, taking some creative liberties while preserving the core elements of the original tale.
Set in 1994, the text explores Mencarelli’s own experiences during a week of involuntary confinement. As we delve into his complex personality, we also meet the roommates who profoundly influence him over time.
While it draws from autobiographical content, the novel expands to portray the backgrounds and present lives of the individuals Mencarelli encounters, offering intimate insights into their experiences. The primary goal of the publication is to challenge readers’ perceptions of life and its fragility.
Importantly, it doesn’t shy away from the harsh realities of psychiatric care, depicting the conflicting dynamics among everyone involved—from doctors to patients—marked by sadness, exhaustion, and emotional distance. Yet, it ultimately conveys a powerful message about kindness and sensitivity towards those we meet along the way.
“Everything Calls for Salvation” is the second installment of an autobiographical trilogy, with the first part titled “The House of Gazes” and the third, “Sempre tornare,” published in 2021. Writing has enabled Mencarelli to embrace his own skin, as he shared in an interview with The Italian Reve:
“It means embracing even my most painful and suffering part that continues, paradoxically, to be the most propulsive one when it comes to writing, the most interrogating one. It means to accept this part of me that continues to be viscerally attached to certain themes, to ask certain things, to propose certain quests. Today, I defend even that part of me that’s the most pain-provoking one in my life”.
