ITAFF25: The Great Ambition

THE GREAT AMBITION

Berlinguer. La grande ambizione 

Australian premiere

Elio Germano delivers a standout performance as Enrico Berlinguer in this meticulous, intelligent biopic of a man for whom life and politics, private and collective, were inextricably linked.

Italy, 1970s. Enrico Berlinguer is the Secretary of the most important Communist party in the western world, with over one million seven hundred thousand card-holding members and more than twelve million voters, united by the great ambition of achieving socialism within a democracy. Challenging the dogmas of the Cold War and a world divided in two, Berlinguer and the Italian Communist Party (PCI) sought for five years to come to power, opening a season of dialogue with the Christian Democracy and almost changing history.

Covering the period from 1973 when Berlinguer escapes an assassination attempt by the Bulgarian secret services in Sofia, makes it through election campaigns and trips to Moscow, onto the front pages of newspapers worldwide and holds a risky relationship with power, until 1978, The Great Ambition is a compelling portrait of the popular leader at his peak.

 2024 | Italy, Belgium, Bulgaria | Italian, Russian and Bulgarian with English subtitles

FESTIVALS & AWARDS

WINNER | Best Actor, Best Editing, David di Donatello Awards 2025
WINNER | Best Actor, Rome Film Festival
NOMINEE x13 | including Best Film, Best Director, David di Donatello Awards 2025