

1828. After witnessing the brutal repression of revolutions in monarchist South, three young friends join Giuseppe Mazzini's patriotic cause, seeking to finally unify Italy under a republican government. Their idealism will clash with the inevitable disillusionment as they grow apart over the following decades.
Acting
Dual casts seamlessly bridge young idealists and broken old men.
Production
RAI threw money at this like it was their last epic.
Writing
Makes 170 minutes of political meetings genuinely devastating.

Director
Mario Martone
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
RAI Cinema funded this as a deliberate counter-narrative to romanticized Risorgimento myths — Italy interrogating its own origin story.
The film adapts Anna Banti's novel but Martone invented the friendship structure; real historical figures never knew each other this intimately.