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"A hilarious anti-epic about Berlusconi's Mafia connections and the way in which his politics of moral debasement via tabloid television have transformed Italy for the worse." – Film Comment
Somewhere on the island of Sicily, Franco Maresco has gone missing; the documentary he was working on – an exploration of alleged links between former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and local Mafia figures – left unfinished. A critic from the mainland travels to Palermo to inspect the footage and put it together. Along the way he encounters a talent agent and two of his acts, exponents of a bizarre musical genre who perform a nostalgic song about the country's former leader.
Part documentary, part absurdist spoof, Belluscone. A Sicilian Story is funny, often sarcastic, examination of both the social malaise left by the Berlusconi era, and of the singular culture of the island that adored him most.
Winner of the Special Orizzonti Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival.
"Throughout the deconstructionist zigs and zags of the film, the boundaries between documentary and fiction are blurred beyond recognition, but it is precisely in doing so that Belluscone is able to achieve such an incisive probing of the modern Sicilian psyche and its key role in the rise of berlusconismo." – Senses of Cinema
