This is a film of two parts. The first takes a 1922 fascist film, called A Noi!, directed by Umberto Paradisi, and deconstructs it with a forensic brilliance. Cousins, who narrates with his beguiling Belfast tones, examines the way the film was made, observing details which would be likely to be missed on a single viewing, and deconstructing its propaganda agenda and deceits. The film narrates how A Noi! is connected to the sudden rise to power of Mussolini and the triumph of his fascist agenda, which lead in the end to unmitigated tragedy. The second half of the film is more discursive, lacking the core material to anchor it of the first, and ends up being something of a beautifully shot meditation on fascism (with the director also having a cinematography credit.) Whilst the message is clear, the film itself seems to drift. Nevertheless, it was greeted with warm applause by the partisan cinemateca crowd.
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