Italy’s Fandango Film Sales has landed a number of sales on Andrea Segre’s “The Great Ambition,” a biopic of the late Italian political leader Enrico Berlinguer, who was secretary of Western Europe’s largest Communist Party during the 1970s.
The surprisingly timely film, which is produced by Rome-based indie Vivo film (“Nico, 1988,” “Le Quattro Volte”), opened the Rome Film Festival last year and went on to become a hit in Italian cinemas where it has pulled more than $4 million — and counting — becoming one last years’ top ten local box office draws.
Italian A-lister Elio Germano (pictured) — who won top actor honors in Cannes with Daniele Luchetti’s “Our Life” — plays Berlinguer, who led the Italian Communist Party (PCI) from 1972 until his death in 1984. Berlinguer nearly brought the PCI to power in the Italian parliamentary elections of 1976.
“When a way forward seems impossible to everyone, do you have to stop? Enrico Berlinguer did not,” says the provided synopsis. “He was the Secretary in the 1970s of the most important Communist party in the western world, with over 1,700,000 card-holding members and more than 12 million voters, united by the great ambition of achieving socialism within a democracy.”
The description continues, “Challenging the dogmas of the Cold War and a world divided in two, Berlinguer and the Italian Communist Party (PCI) sought for five years to come to power, opening a season of dialogue with the Christian Democrats and coming just an inch from changing history.”
Fandango has now sold “The Great Ambition” to France (Nour), Spain (Filmin), Portugal (Risi), Switzerland (Cineworx), Brazil (Imovision), Greece (Weirdwave), Australia/New Zealand (Palace), Bulgaria (TBD), and former Yugoslavia (McF Megacom). The company is in negotiations to close Benelux and other territories, it said.
Commenting on the film’s success in Italy, Vivo Film co-chief Marta Donzelli told Variety that, while they knew it could resonate with Italy’s older demographic, she was surprised to learn that the key to its popularity had “been the youth audience that have flocked to the film and created buzz around it.”
As for why, Donzelli said she thought it was because Berlinguer “stands for what it means to dedicate your life to making the world a better place within a collective vision,” adding that she thought “the film’s success with youth audiences in Italy can be replicated in the international arena.”
Donzelli went on to note that there are lots of elements in “The Great Ambition” that resonate with what we are seeing in today’s international political arena.
“The film depicts the interference of both the Soviet Union and the U.S. in a democratic attempt to bring the largest political party in the West to power,” she said. “It could seem dated but instead speaks very strongly to us today.”
As part of its international rollout, “The Great Ambition” recently played at Sweden’s Göteberg Film Festival and is currently part of the Cinema Made in Italy showcase in London. It is expected to soon screen in competition at the Beijing International Film Festival where there is the prospect that it could get picked up for distribution in China.
