A few year ago, Franco Maresco started working on a film about Silvio Berlusconi's ties to organized crime in Sicily: his humble beginnings in the construction business (the root of all post-war Italian evil); his meteoric rise as a private media mogul; finally his triumph as a populist politician ruling the nation with games and bread nobody seemed to need. And how Italians loved him - whenever he fell, he was quickly re-elected. Why? What did they see in this brazenly buffoonish thug? Could it be that They are simply like Him? Or are they more like made-man Mira Ciccio, an impresario of Neapolitan neo-melodic music, his wards Erik and Vittorio Ricciardi, and their fans who howl with delight when they sing Vorrei conoscere Berlusconi? Is there a difference? Does it matter? By the way: they're real, and this is mostly a documentary - especially when it looks grotesque, absurd or just pitifully going stupid.
- Director
- Franco Maresco
- Country of production
- Italy
- Year
- 2014
- Festival Edition
- IFFR 2015
- Length
- 95'
- Medium
- DCP
- International title
- Belluscone. A Sicilian Story
- Language
- Italian
- Producers
- Rean Mazzone, Anna Vinci
- Production Companies
- Ila Palma, Dream Film
- Sales
- Ila Palma
- Screenplay
- Franco Maresco, Claudia Uzzo
- Cinematography
- Luca Bigazzi, Tommaso Lusena, Irma Vecchio
- Editor
- Franco Maresco
- Production Design
- Cesare Inzerillo, Nicola Sferruzza
- Sound Design
- Giancarlo Rutigliano