Viva la libertà
Italy, 94 min
Comedy, drama
Scope, Dolby, In Italian with English Subtitles
In this elegant and chilling story about world politics, the great Toni Servillo defies expectations playing two roles, imbuing each character with brilliant nuance and astonishing attention to detail. In the first, he personifies political failure in the role of the disgraced ideologue and party leader, Enrico Oliveri. In the second, he embodies the shrewd genius of a madman as Oliveri’s unhinged twin brother who seizes control of the nation amidst the void of his brother’s disappearance.
As the national election approaches, Enrico Oliveri has plummeted in the polls and his supporters and adversaries alike begin to acknowledge his impending downfall. Unwilling to face the failure of his party and his nation, Oliveri vanishes into the night. The party leadership tries to hedge for time by concealing Oliveri’s disappearance with a series of acrobatic sidesteps. In a desperate move, right hand man Andrea Bottini seeks out Oliveri’s look-alike twin brother, Giovanni Ernani, a prolific author and philosopher who is freshly released from an insane asylum. Slowly and steadily, Giovanni insinuates himself into his brother’s public persona, impersonating Oliveri’s every tick and mannerism exquisitely – yet slightly imperfectly. Giovanni quickly surpasses his brother’s political prowess with an eerie talent for rallying the masses through fearless and heroic speeches. As Andò shifts between the failure of the sincere intellectual and the heroics of a madman, he probes the driving forces behind our contemporary global political reality leaving behind a rich web of questions in this unpredictable and provocative thriller.
DIRECTOR Roberto Andò
CAST Toni Servillo, Valerio Mastandrea, Valeria Bruni Tedeschi
Director ROBERTO ANDO Story & Screenplay ROBERTO ANDO Producer ANGELO BARBAGALLO Cinematography MAURIZIO CALVESI Editing CLELIO BENEVENTO Production Design GIANNI CARLUCCIO Original Music MARCO BETTA
US Publicist JULIA PACETTI
FESTIVALS AND AWARDS
ItalianDavid di Donatello 2013: Best non-leading Actor (Valerio Mastandrea), Best Screenplay
Festival Cinéma Méditerranéen à Bruxelles 2013: Cineuropa Award, Audience Award
Haifa International Film Festival 2013: Golden Anchor Competition – Best Film
Cinema Made In Italy – Buenos Aires 2014
Göteborg Film Festival 2014: Den gudomliga komedin
Italian Film Festival in Scotland 2014
Italian Film Festival of St. Louis 2014
NYC Open Roads: New Italian Cinema 2014
Chicago International Film Festival 2013: Comedy, Italian Style
Karlovy Vary International Film Festival 2013: Official Selection – Competition