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
Luigi Lo Cascio
Domenico Lopresti
Valerio Binasco
Angelo Cammarota
Francesca Inaudi
Cristina di Belgiojoso
Andrea Bosca
Angelo da giovane
Edoardo Natoli
Domenico da giovane
Luigi Pisani
Salvatore Tambasco
Guido Caprino
Felice Orsini
Renato Carpentieri
Carlo Poerio
Michele Riondino
Saverio Tambasco
Peppino Mazzotta
Don Carmine Lopresti
Franco Ravera
Antonio Gomez
Stefano Cassetti
Carlo Rudio
Andrea Renzi
Sigismondo di Castromediano
Ivan Franěk
Simon Bernard
Roberto De Francesco
Ludovico
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.
IT
FR
