Italy: As election nears, film imagines Mussolini’s comeback
ROME — A new film that comically imagines dictator Benito Mussolini returning to present-day Italy and trying to stage a comeback opened Thursday, in the middle of an election campaign that has been dominated by populist and neo-fascist sentiments.
“I’m Back” is an Italian spin on the popular 2015 German film “Look Who’s Back,” which hypothesized a modern-day resurrection of Adolf Hitler.
The comedy has gotten near-unanimous rave reviews from Italian critics, who have applauded its implicit warning that the Italy of 2018 is susceptible to the same populist messages that brought Mussolini to power nearly a century ago. Its opening coincided with the 80th anniversary of the introduction of Fascist-era racist laws that discriminated against Jews, and comes just days after the world marked Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Director Luca Miniero said the movie “touches the belly of the country,” saying Italians still harbour a bit of Il Duce in their souls.