Like the ground-breaking Best of Youth, My Brother is an Only Child (Mio fratello è figlio unico) covers a key period of political turmoil in Italian history seen in a relatable context from the perspective of an ordinary family. Daniele Luchetti enlists the screenwriters of the earlier successful TV mini-series Sandro Petraglia and Stefano Rulli and manages to bring the same sense of passion and urgency to Antonio Pennacchio's original novel and the autobiographical elements that inspired it.
My Brother is an Only Child covers a more condensed period of political turmoil from 1962 to 1977 that had an intense impact on a generation not only in Italy, but in many parts of Europe and the USA. There's something about the Italian experience however that manages to bring the swirl of forces at work into even greater focus, particularly in the way that they impact on the Benassi family, living significantly in the recently built town of Latina, founded by Mussolini in the fascist style. Developed entirely in eight weeks, the cracks however are now beginning to show.
The times they are a-changing and the former adherence to authority - mainly religious in the Benassi family - is being challenged by their two sons Accio and Manrico. The older brother Manrico has already developed left-wing revolutionary tendencies, and it doesn't take more than a revealing photo of actress Marisa Allasio to cause a crisis of faith in his younger brother Accio who has gone into a seminary in 1962. Accio however also has a crisis of faith in the Communism following the Cuban missile crisis, and turns instead to Fascism, recognising or believing that the ideals and achievements of Il Duce weren't all bad.
That's quite an ideological split in the Benassi family and it's compounded by the fact that they are quite a bunch of headstrong hotheads. Particularly the young Accio, who is still thrashing around for something to believe in, leading him down some very dark alleys, but Manrico also takes his activism to extremes. As dissatisfaction spills over onto the streets in the late sixties in mob violence, this results in some pronounced family tensions, but there are also romantic complications that reflect the film's treatment of the theme of loss of innocence.
Daniele Luchetti's pacy direction holds the wide dynamic of the film together well, getting right to the heart of the Italian passions and its fervour for life. Avoiding any kind of artificial 60s/70s period recreation (of the kind seen for example in Bertolucci's The Dreamers), and eliciting engaging performances from a young cast, My Brother is an Only Child has a wonderful naturalistic freshness and immediacy that speaks about love and youth, about ideals and disillusionment that speaks about life rather than making any political points specific only to Italy.
My Brother is an Only Child covers a more condensed period of political turmoil from 1962 to 1977 that had an intense impact on a generation not only in Italy, but in many parts of Europe and the USA. There's something about the Italian experience however that manages to bring the swirl of forces at work into even greater focus, particularly in the way that they impact on the Benassi family, living significantly in the recently built town of Latina, founded by Mussolini in the fascist style. Developed entirely in eight weeks, the cracks however are now beginning to show.
The times they are a-changing and the former adherence to authority - mainly religious in the Benassi family - is being challenged by their two sons Accio and Manrico. The older brother Manrico has already developed left-wing revolutionary tendencies, and it doesn't take more than a revealing photo of actress Marisa Allasio to cause a crisis of faith in his younger brother Accio who has gone into a seminary in 1962. Accio however also has a crisis of faith in the Communism following the Cuban missile crisis, and turns instead to Fascism, recognising or believing that the ideals and achievements of Il Duce weren't all bad.
That's quite an ideological split in the Benassi family and it's compounded by the fact that they are quite a bunch of headstrong hotheads. Particularly the young Accio, who is still thrashing around for something to believe in, leading him down some very dark alleys, but Manrico also takes his activism to extremes. As dissatisfaction spills over onto the streets in the late sixties in mob violence, this results in some pronounced family tensions, but there are also romantic complications that reflect the film's treatment of the theme of loss of innocence.
Daniele Luchetti's pacy direction holds the wide dynamic of the film together well, getting right to the heart of the Italian passions and its fervour for life. Avoiding any kind of artificial 60s/70s period recreation (of the kind seen for example in Bertolucci's The Dreamers), and eliciting engaging performances from a young cast, My Brother is an Only Child has a wonderful naturalistic freshness and immediacy that speaks about love and youth, about ideals and disillusionment that speaks about life rather than making any political points specific only to Italy.