My favorite film at the Toronto International Film Festival this year was by far M – Son of the Century, creatively directed by the talented UK filmmaker Joe Wright. It’s actually an Italian TV mini-series about the founder of fascism himself, Prime Minister Benito Mussolini. It stars Luca Marinelli, the charismatic lead in Martin Eden, as the narcissistic, violent megalomaniac that changed the course of history. It’s also reminiscent of another powerful and insightful Italian Mussolini drama that premiered at TIFF in 2009, entitled Vincere by Marco Bellocchio, which I also highly recommend.
The story is based on Antonio Scurati’s book of the same name, that covers the years 1917-1924 in Italy, when the new emerging socialist state of the USSR began to challenge the decimated powers of Europe. Benito Mussolini was first a socialist and wrote for Avanti, the party newspaper. He was expelled from the party for changing his position to support Italy’s involvement in the Great War. The returning Italian soldiers who survived the war came home to a disillusioned country that essentially ignored them—except for Il Duce, who saw an opportunity to utilize their anger and frustration by creating a group of violent agitators to support his political ambitions. He developed a new anti-communist political philosophy, fascism, that gave power to corporations backed by his brutal gang of disenchanted workers and soldiers. He started a provocative newspaper, Il Popolo d’Italia, that he used to help take power in government. Although fascists didn’t originally want to be part of Parliament, he talked them into it by first taking power through the legal system. “Democracy is a good thing to gain power, then give it up.” At first, he lost elections along with his influence and power, but as an opportunist kept proclaiming, “I’m an animal, and the future is mine.” It eventually was, for a time.
This historical drama, which has some parallels to current history, is dynamic and visually stunning, with excessively violent scenes that are hard to watch, accompanied by a persistently powerful pounding music score. Red and black are the thematic bold colors. In-your-face close-ups happen often. The series is an important and powerful tool that shows the history of fascism, how it started, and how we can apply the study to present times. Don’t miss it!
On to Norway…
On to a fascist of another kind—the Minister President of Norway in the 1940s, Vidkun Quisling, who collaborated with Nazi Germany during its occupation of the country. The story of his traitorous actions focusing on his eventual imprisonment is told in the moving historical drama, Quisling – The Final Days. After the Soviets won the war against the Nazis and saved the world from fascism, the recalcitrant Quisling was arrested for embezzlement, murder, and high treason, and a priest was assigned to talk with him in prison to try to understand his complex actions. He simply explained that he was “anti-Bolshevik, just trying to fight communism. What’s wrong with that?” And I ask, what about anti-communism today? Is it still considered a crime? Because of his criminal actions, his name Quisling eventually became a word to define a traitor or collaborator.
…and Colombia
The tragic effects of seemingly endless war are given the magical realism treatment in the hypnotic drama Horizonte from Colombia, a country that knows extreme pain. Two ghosts, a mother and son, travel throughout a war-torn land that has suffered from decades of violence, now trying to return to a level of understanding. Memories of the son being captured by the national army to fight and kill rebels, the mother dealing with the crimes of her own son against the rebels, become philosophical musings: Where are we going? What is the true meaning of life? How do you deal with the pain of knowing someone who came from you did horrible things? Can you forgive for those actions? How do we relate to one another after this massive abuse of life? This has been the challenge in so many countries, many that have fallen victim to wars caused by U.S. imperialism and colonialism. Director César Augusto Acevedo knows that “although we live in a cynical world, we have time and opportunity to seek out those moments to make change.” “Hay futuro si hay verdad” (there is a future if there is truth) reads the motto of the Final Report by the Colombian Truth Commission issued in 2022. The movie provides the accompaniment for recovery and survival.
…and Nigeria
And finally, a film about people joining forces to take action against social injustice—and it comes from Lagos, Nigeria, the most populous city in the African continent. The Legend of the Vagabond Queen of Lagos is an exciting project put together by a young film group, The Agbajowo Collective, made up of slum dwellers who are constantly threatened with evictions. They are part of Media4Change, a human rights organization, using film to make change. They are committed to telling the true stories from their communities, that the main media ignore or misrepresent, to change the narrative. These slum dwellers didn’t go to film school but received strong guidance from professionals who helped in the process. They are youth not waiting for elders to make change to help fight off the criminals and gangs in the communities. Most of them, living on less than $1 a day, are fighting to secure shelter for everyone. This highly entertaining and motivational film shows how they work together to fight off the police who often join forces with gangsters to remove them from their shelters which are rampant throughout the city. The closing credits reveal the exhaustive list of forced evictions from over 100 locations, totaling millions of people being removed from their shelters.
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