THE MARCH ON ROME

Mark Cousins / Italy / 2022 / 98 min

Ultra-cinéaste Mark Cousins tells the story of the rise of right-wing nationalism in the West through rare film clips mined from deep within the archives, masterfully assembled into an incisive analysis of a history that threatens to repeat itself.

The March on Rome brought Benito Mussolini to power in 1922. A hundred years later, Italians would have spared him the trouble, as they have elected a crypto-fascist government themselves at a time when world leaders like Trump from Putin have set new standards for dirty play in the political arena. Renowned ultra-cinéaste Mark Cousins has been deep in the film archives, and through his rare finds he tells the compelling and eerily timely story of the rise of right-wing nationalism in the West from the 1920s up to our own times, when a fatal narrative of media, manipulation and misinformation is about to repeat itself. A masterful piece of montage art, and a film to learn from.