“Here they are, my lost people, in need of strongmen and simple ideas,” says Benito Mussolini to the camera. It is March 23 1919, and all that we know will happen in Italy and all that we know this man will become is only just being set in motion. Mussolini: Son of the Century, a new Italian-language Sky Atlantic TV series, tells the story of this beginning, of the rise of Italian fascism and its consolidation in power from 1919 to 1925.
Set out in eight parts, it’s a striking and powerful piece of TV. Italian actor Luca Marinelli performs indomitably as the 35-year-old soon-to-be dictator, Benito Mussolini. Our reviewer, expert in Italian history John Foot, has spent countless hours studying and watching Mussolini. He was blown away by the precision with which Marinelli expels torrents of words – many of which have been drawn directly from Mussolini’s journalism and speeches.
The series is coming at a moment when far-right leaders are winning elections all over the world and its director, Joe Wright, is keenly aware. This series is clearly a warning. Democracy is fragile. Yes, this series is about the man who would become “Il Duce” (the Duke) but it shows, as Foot notes, how he was enabled and how easily his incendiary language and the violence of his supporters were ignored.
