I'm Back

I'm Back (Sono tornato, 2018) is an Italian political comedy you can watch online on iFILM. Director Luca Miniero takes the same premise as Er ist wieder da and relocates it to Rome: Benito Mussolini reappears in 2017, fully uniformed, completely unaware that 72 years have passed. Massimo Popolizio plays the dictator with dead-eyed conviction.

A struggling TV filmmaker spots an opportunity and drags Mussolini on a road trip across Italy, camera rolling. The footage they capture is unsettling: ordinary people mistake the man for a performance artist or provocateur, laugh along at his speeches about national weakness and the failure of politicians, and cheer. Nobody thinks he means it. That is the point.

Released the same year populist parties were sweeping European elections, the film lands harder than straight satire would. It's funny and then immediately uncomfortable — exactly the reaction it's going for. Stream I'm Back (2018) online on iFILM.