We meet Mussolini immediately after WWI. Italy is fractured—veterans scorned, inflation rampant, socialists gaining ground. Mussolini founds the Fasci Italiani di Combattimento in Milan’s Piazza San Sepolcro. It’s a failure at first (only 50 people show up). But through savvy media manipulation (he is a master journalist) and the brutal squadristi violence of the Blackshirts , he begins to carve a space.
There is a specific, chilling comfort in the way history is often taught. We view the dictators of the 20th century as monsters—aberrations of humanity who seized power through sheer, supernatural force of evil. It creates a safe distance between "us" and "them." mussolini: son of the century season 01
The sound design is particularly effective. The drumbeats of the Fascist squads—the squadristi —act as a percussion track for the season. The violence is depicted not as cinematic glory, but as ugly, chaotic, and inevitable. The famous "March on Rome" is not filmed as a triumph, but as a farce that miraculously turned into a tragedy, highlighting the incompetence of the King and the cowardice of the existing political class. We meet Mussolini immediately after WWI
The main invention is temporal compression and internal monologue. Mussolini never literally turned to a camera and spoke. But this device is used to explain his psychology —drawing directly from Scurati’s novel, which mixed real speeches with fictional interiority. Also, some minor squadristi characters are composites. It’s a failure at first (only 50 people show up)
), the series is an adaptation of the international bestseller by Antonio Scurati
Filmed largely at the legendary Cinecittà Studios in Rome. The Plot: From Journalist to Dictator
, where his words don't just report the news—they set the Mediterranean on fire. The Great Pivot