“Right here they’re, my misplaced folks, in want of strongmen and easy concepts,” says Benito Mussolini to the digital camera. It’s March 23 1919, and all that we all know will occur in Italy and all that we all know this man will develop into is barely simply being set in movement. Mussolini: Son of the Century, a brand new Italian-language Sky Atlantic TV sequence, tells the story of this starting, of the rise of Italian fascism and its consolidation in energy from 1919 to 1925.
Set out in eight components, it’s a hanging and highly effective piece of TV. Italian actor Luca Marinelli performs indomitably because the 35-year-old soon-to-be dictator, Benito Mussolini. Our reviewer, professional in Italian historical past John Foot, has spent numerous hours learning and watching Mussolini. He was blown away by the precision with which Marinelli expels torrents of phrases – lots of which have been drawn straight from Mussolini’s journalism and speeches.
The sequence is coming at a second when far-right leaders are profitable elections all around the world and its director, Joe Wright, is keenly conscious. This sequence is clearly a warning. Democracy is fragile. Sure, this sequence is in regards to the man who would develop into “Il Duce” (the Duke) however it exhibits, as Foot notes, how he was enabled and the way simply his incendiary language and the violence of his supporters have been ignored.
Mussolini: Son of the Century is offered on Sky Atlantic now
Learn extra:
Why I liked the brand new Mussolini drama – by an professional in Italian fascism
Darkish historical past
In case you’re seeking to find out about one other bit of world historical past by sensible storytelling let me advocate the director Tim Fehlbaum’s new movie September 5. The movie recounts the Black September assault on the Israeli workforce on the 1972 Munich Olympics.
As our reviewer, movie professional Barry Langford writes, this incident arguably launched the time period “terrorist” to many viewers for the primary time. The story has been advised many instances however the focus right here is on the American sports activities broadcasting crew tasked with protecting the hostage disaster. The drama unfolds virtually completely throughout the confines of the management room.
It’s a tense and tightly-packed 94 minutes that does this story justice and exhibits that massive subjects may be dealt with effectively briefly (for today) movies.
September 5 is in cinemas now.
Learn extra:
September 5: tense and taut drama vividly recreates the Munich bloodbath
One other historic fiction suggestion is the brand new ebook from the Nobel literature prize-winning South Korean creator Han Kang, We Do Not Half. First revealed in 2021 and now translated into English, it takes on the reminiscences and lasting shadow of Jeju 4.3 (1947 to 1948) on the households who survived.
The official determine of how many individuals died continues to be not recognized, and it’s assumed that round 10% of the inhabitants of Jeju island was killed throughout this US-backed operation by the Korean authorities to eradicate communists and their sympathisers. The incident was suppressed by the federal government till 2000 when it was formally recognised.
On this ebook, Kang bears witness to the horror by Kyungha, who’s snowed in at her good friend Inseon’s compound in Jeju. There, she discovers Inseon’s lifelong investigation into her household’s experiences of the massacres.
It’s advised in a form of dizzying, fragmentary fashion the place excerpts of interviews, descriptions of images and passages of reminiscences intersect with Kyungha’s current. Haunting and harrowing at instances, it options Han Kang’s typical exact language and brilliantly unnerving and dreamlike storytelling.
Learn extra:
We Do Not Half by Han Kang: a haunting story which forces the reader to recollect a horrific incident in Korea’s previous that it tried to erase
Killer robots and large whales
Movie’s fascination with the potential of horny feminine robots goes again to Fritz Lang’s Metropolis in 1927. Males lust after these robots, but additionally concern them – and infrequently rightly so. A few of my favourites on this style are Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner (1982), Alex Garland’s Ex Machina (2014) and now Drew Hancock’s Companion (2025).
Companion follows Iris and Josh, a seemingly common couple sure of their driverless automotive for a weekend away with Josh’s pals. Iris, like many girlfriends on this state of affairs, is keen to be a hit. However, she isn’t a standard lady, she’s a classy humanoid companion bot – one thing she doesn’t find out about herself … but. What begins with dinner events and dancing quickly devolves into violence as one thing in her programming goes flawed.
As our reviewer Sarah Artt notes: “What makes Companion unsettling isn’t a lot its depiction of cyborgs however slightly its portrayal of misogyny.” This shiny movie asks what makes somebody accomplice to anybody, subtle robotic or in any other case. Does our therapy and respect of humanoid bots and AI matter? I noticed this movie final week and am nonetheless serious about it.
Companion is in cinemas now.
Learn extra:
Companion assessment: this modern however violent movie asks attention-grabbing moral questions on our relationship with AI
Lastly, if you’re in or occur to be going to Winchester this month, pop by the cathedral to gawp in awe at three large sculptures of sperm whales hanging from the ceiling within the nave. The immersive exhibition Whales is by artist Tessa Campbell Fraser and asks guests to stare up on the majesty of those almighty creatures and ponder humankind’s growing ecological impression on the world’s local weather.
Whales is on at Winchester Cathedral till February 26.
On the lookout for one thing good? Minimize by the noise with a rigorously curated collection of the newest releases, stay occasions and exhibitions, straight to your inbox each fortnight, on Fridays. Join right here.
