A tragicomic journey through history, via a long and tiring path towards Italian unity: Mazzini, Garibaldi, Cavour, Verdi… names that today seem far from us, but which are not so far after all. The "Risorgimento" was a revolution, welcomed as really and truly epic in the nineteenth century, but reduced in the following century by Italian “dark forces”. Power, intellectuals and the people have made for a difficult relationship, often violent and not lacking cynicism, and which has obstructed the creation of a shared national feeling. The telling of this half epic is recounted via newsreels and documentaries, the Luce archive, from 1910 to the 1980s, which, not without rhetoric, span the history of the nation. A critical and bitter feeling, but also ironic, can be heard in the words of the writers and poets of different political and cultural backgrounds; and, in a true counter melody, in the sounds and expressions of the people, who sing their joy and pain in this rich and violent history.
A country unable to begin to talk about itself, unable to work through its real grief, to look within, all reaching towards a false newness, which has ended up causing great tragedies born of foolish illusions. It’s a country that you could pronounce dead, if it weren’t for its extraordinary pages of literature and history and its unique anthropological heritage.