A professor's principled 'no' to fascism becomes a masterclass in moral courage.
Rossini, history teacher and son of another professor, for his liberal ideas refuses to sign the oath of allegiance to the the fascist regime that Mussolini imposed on the professors university. After a period of imprisonment he is so assigned to confinement on an island. Here the young intellectual finds himself in contact with the composite humanity that populated the places of confinement: militiamen, agents, common and political coercion, villagers. The figure of the director of the colony, the commissioner Rizzuto, stands out among all, who was a pupil of his father, and for whom he continues to have feelings of esteem and devotion.
Acting
Adolfo Celi's Rizzuto: paternal warmth masking institutional rot.
Direction
Leto's unflinching gaze at how ideology hollows out human connection.
Director
Marco Leto
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Shot during Italy's Years of Lead, the film resonated as contemporary political prisoners still dotted Italian islands. The fascist past was suddenly urgent again.
Celi, famous as Bond villain Largo, uses that same magnetic stillness here — but weaponized for ambiguity rather than menace. His Rizzuto genuinely believes he's protecting Rossini.
IT
