I sovversivi

"The Subversives" combines actual footage of a Communist leader's funeral, Palmiero Togliatti (who died in 1964), with the story of four people for whom the death marks a major turning point in their political futures. The film takes an episodic approach to chronicle the different effects the leader's death has upon these people. As the four stories intermingle, we follow Ettore, a Venezuelan radical who abandons the wealthy Italian woman he loves to go back to his country and help his cause, Ludovico, an ailing filmmaker who finds out that art alone is not enough, Giulia, a woman who embarks upon a lesbian affair with a former mistress of her husband (who happens to be a leader of the Italian Communist party), and Ermanno, a philosophy graduate who breaks up with his past.