This is the story of Alcide DeGasperi who was one of the leaders of Italy in the post WW2 world. The film is DeGasperi's struggle to move the country away from facism and toward Democracy as told by Roberto Rossellini.
The minds behind the Locarno film festival are behind the restoration of this film. They want to show the world what it takes to come back from fascism. 50 years on this is a timely film.
How you are going to react to the film will depend upon how you feel about Rossellini's later films. This was the time when he was making a series of TV documentaries about great people and great events. They were focused on the reality of events on a human level and not grand spectacle. The result is there is a lot of talk and not great moments. ANNO UNO is in that vein. This is a lot of talk and moments that aren't always the glorious ones.
While I like many of Rossellin's films, I find his later films to be too static for my tastes. I find what he found interesting not so interesting. While I admire what this film is doing I personally never was engaged.
While this film didn't work for me, Rossellini's film from the period delight many people (there are numerous releases from the Criterion Collection). If you are a fan of Rossellini's later films, make an effort to see it.
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