The Great Ambition

An insightful and engrossing political drama about Italian Communist leader Enrico Berlinguer—his ideology, compromises, and personal struggles in 1970s Italy and Cold War Europe.

Andrea Segre captures a pivotal era in Italian and European political history with his convincing portrait of Enrico Berlinguer, the Secretary-General of Italy’s Communist Party during the 1970s and early 80s. Berlinguer’s “great ambition” was to unite socialism and democracy, challenge Cold War dogmas, and bridge a divided world. Through a historic compromise with the Christian Democrats, he sought to lead his party into government – an effort that demanded a delicate balancing act between ideals and political pragmatism.

Berlinguer’s vision earned both admiration and criticism, from the right and left, inside and outside his party. Elio Germano delivers a standout performance as the charismatic Berlinguer, a man for whom politics and life, the personal and the collective, were inextricably intertwined.

• Johan Blomqvist