Diversity Macht Frei
February 8, 2018
The Italians have done their own take on the German “He’s Back” film that showed Hitler returning to the modern world. “Sono tornato” [I’m Back] adopts the same light-hearted tone. But the director thinks Mussolini could really win an election in modern Italy.
Just as the right is moving forward, Benito Mussolini is appearing in Italian cinemas in the satire movie I’m Back, which imagines the dictator returning to the Italy of 2018. “The Italians, unlike the Germans, never dealt with their dictator, they have never removed him,” said the director Luca Maniero. “Watching what is happening, today, in our country, I am convinced that if Mussolini came back, he would win the election.’’
The most interesting parts of the trailer are when people in the street spontaneously give the Roman salute on seeing “Mussolini” pass by.
It is actually not implausible that Mussolini could win. Polls show a massive hardening of opinion on the question of immigration. La Stampa recently reported that 65% of people aged between 18 and 35 want immigration either stopped completely or drastically limited. “Even the centre-left voters are now afraid of immigrants,” it said.
In some photographs, Luca Traini actually bears a striking resemblance to Mussolini. He also looks a bit like Marlon Brando playing Colonel Kurtz in Apocalypse Now.