My Brother is an Only Child
| My Brother Is an Only Child (Mio fratello è figlio unico) |
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Italian film poster
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| Directed by | Daniele Luchetti |
| Produced by |
Riccardo Tozzi Giovanni Stabilini Marco Chimenz |
| Written by | Daniele Luchetti Sandro Petraglia Stefano Rulli |
| Starring |
Elio Germano Riccardo Scamarcio Angela Finocchiaro Luca Zingaretti Emanuele Propizio |
| Music by | Franco Piersanti |
| Cinematography | Claudio Collepiccolo |
| Edited by | Mirco Garrone |
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Release date
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Running time
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100 minutes |
| Country | Italy |
| Language | Italian |
My Brother Is an Only Child (Italian: Mio fratello è figlio unico) is a 2007 Italian drama film directed by Daniele Luchetti. It is based on an Antonio Pennacchi novel. The title comes from a song by Rino Gaetano from 1976.
Accio (Elio Germano) and Manrico (Riccardo Scamarcio) are working class brothers who live in Italy in the 1960s. While his brother becomes drawn into left-wing politics, Accio, the hotheaded younger brother, is taken under the wing of a market trader and while under his influence, joins the Fascist party. Accio ("Bully") is a nickname he is proud of because it makes him seem tough. Manrico and their sister Violetta are alarmed to hear their brother listening to Benito Mussolini's speeches in his room. Manrico often physically torments his brother, including stuffing his head in the barrel under the drain pipe of their house.
Accio once runs away from home because his mother voted for the Houses Party. Their house is falling apart and she thinks the Houses Party will help them rebuild it.
As Accio and Manrico get older they start demonstrating as members of the Fascist party and the Communist movement respectively. (There are scenes of a factory occupation, and the occupation of the Rome conservatoire, where the sister is studying the cello.) The film is relatively even handed in its treatment of politics. If the young fascists seem absurd with their chanting of 'Duce! Duce!', and their actions constantly tending to violence, the communists are hardly less so: Schiller's words in the final movement of Beethoven's choral symphony are replaced by a hymn in praise of Mao Zedong, Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin; a meeting of activists consists of a room full of bearded men all shouting at once and only agreeing when the time comes to shout a slogan.
Francesca, Manrico's girlfriend, becomes Accio's friend. Accio secretly likes her and thinks that she should not stay with Manrico because "he can't be depended on". The viewer is in little doubt that Accio is also attracted to Francesca himself. At the same time, he has himself become sexually involved with the wife of his fascist friend, the market trader, who has been imprisoned for his violent political activities. She buys him a car through an installment plan.
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Wikipedia