MIXING THE PERSONAL AND THE POLITICAL TO TELLING EFFECT, ITALIAN DIRECTOR DANIELE LUCHETTI’S INITIALLY BREEZY COMEDY FOLLOWS THE CONTRASTING FORTUNES OF TWO BROTHERS WHOSE IDEOLOGICAL SPARRING ULTIMATELY LEADS TO TRAGEDY.
Set in Latina—a city founded by Mussolini’s Fascist government and located near Rome—during the 1960s and ’70s, the film is adapted from Antonio Pennacchi’s bestselling novel Il fasciocomunista by scriptwriters Sandro Petraglia and Stafano Rulli, who also penned The Best of Youth and Romanzo Criminale. The central character, Accio (rising star Elio Germano), is first seen as an exuberantly rebellious seminarian who is eventually expelled and forced to return to his family in disgrace. The youngest and least favoured of three children, Accio is struggling to establish his own identity after a childhood spent in thrall to his older brother Manrico (reigning Italian heartthrob Riccardo Scamarcio). In a defiant act aimed at his leftist family, Accio declares himself a fascist, much to the dismay of Manrico, a fervent communist. But Accio’s affiliations begin to change when his fascist friends target Manrico. Matters are further complicated when Accio embarks on an affair with the wife of his political mentor and the increasingly militant Manrico becomes a target for the Blackshirts. As one would expect, there are strong echoes of The Best of Youth—another tale of two brothers with disparate political convictions—but director Luchetti says he wanted to avoid making a political film. He adopts a much lighter approach, forsaking the epic sweep of the earlier film for a smaller but still very satisfying tale of family conflict and loyalties.—Kevin Coyne.