Plot: The story of Ida Dalser, who fell in love with the future Italian Fascist leader, Benito Mussolini, supported him while he was unemployed in the early 1910s, and married him, presumably around 1914. She bore Mussolini a son, Benito Albino, before the outbreak of World War I. The two lost touch during the war years and, upon discovering him again in a hospital during the war, she also discovered Rachele Guidi, who had married Mussolini in 1915, and a daughter born in 1910 when Guidi and Mussolini were living together. Historically, following his political ascendancy, Mussolini suppressed the information about his first marriage and he (through the Fascist party) persecuted both his first wife and oldest son and committed them forcibly to asylums.
Alternative Plot: Inspired by the life of Benito Mussolini's first wife, Ida Dalser (Giovanna Mezzogiorno), the film tells the story of tragic love amidst the tides of war. Ida, taken by the young and unemployed Benito (Filippo Timi), marries him and soon has his child. The two are separated at the outbreak of World War I, and Benito remarries. When Ida finds out, she tries to assert her place in his life, but the fascists are less than willing to tarnish the image of the man who is now a dictator.
Rate this movie!