#QL16: Il signore delle formiche

Il signore delle formiche
by Gianni Amelio
(Italy, 134’, 2022)

The film is inspired by the true story of playwright and poet Aldo Braibanti, sentenced at the end of the 1960s to nine years in prison on charges of “plagio” (plagiarism of the mind); according to the accuses, Braibanti had submitted to his will, both in a physical and psychological way, a 23-year-old friend and former student of his.
The boy, at the behest of the family, was abducted, locked up in a psychiatric hospital and subjected to a multiple devastating electric shocks, in order to “heal him from that evil influence”. A few years later, the crime of plagiarism of the mind was abolished from the Italian criminal code. As a matter of fact, it had been used as a weapon to accuse “all the different ones” and those considered not conforming to norms. Starting from real events, the film tells a multi-voiced story, where, alongside the accused, we get to see families and friends, accusers and supporters, as well as a mostly indifferent general audience. Only a journalist, braving suspicion and censorship, undergoes the task of reconstructing the truth.

Contacts: Kavac Film, info@kavacfilm.com, I.B.C. Movie, info@itc2000.it

Presented in Venezia 79