Lord of the Ants

Lord of the Ants is a 2022 Italian biographical drama film co-written and directed by Gianni Amelio. The film was entered into the main competition at the 79th Venice International Film Festival.

Plot

A chronicle of the 1964–1968 judicial affair involving homosexual writer Aldo Braibanti, an anti-fascist playwright who was accused of having mentally manipulated two lovers.

Cast

Luigi Lo Cascio as Aldo Braibanti
Elio Germano as Ennio Scribani
Leonardo Maltese as Ettore Tagliaferri
Davide Vecchi as Riccardo Tagliaferri
Sara Serraiocco as Graziella
Anna Caterina Antonacci as Ettore's Mother
Valerio Binasco as Prosecutor

Reception

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 70% based on 10 reviews, and an average rating of 5.8/10.

Historical inaccurancies

A number of critics cited several inaccurancies in the film. The film incorrectly reported the position of l'Unità, the official organ of the Italian Communist Party, which in fact openly took a position in favour of Braibanti and against the sentence, so much so that the day after the ruling it published an editorial by its director, the former partisan, in which the obscurantist climate in which the trial had taken place was denounced in no uncertain terms., the reporter from l'Unità who followed the case, was not only strongly supported by the direction of the newspaper but continued to work profitably for many years after the closure of the case.