Il Grande Sogno (The Big Dream)

Our last SIFF outing was to the Italian film Il Grande Sogno (2009) – The Big Dream. The story is set in the late 1960s in Italy and based on the director Michele Placido’s memories of emigrating from Puglia to the north, being a policeman, and aspiring to be an actor. The backdrop of this story of betrayal, love, and change takes place in the milieu of events leading up to and after the Battle of Valle Giula in Rome. Valle Giula was part of the worldwide unrest collectively called the Protests of 1968. (You will catch a little bit of Barry McGuire’s version of the protest song Eve of Destruction in the film.)

The title “the big dream” can be taken in one way to refer to the dream of a revolution. The film’s story is partially about the anti-war movement across the globe, from an Italian perspective. But it is more about the far left-leaning political and social movements that wanted to shake up the ideas of the mainstream Italian bourgeoise (“borghesia”) which had its allegiance to the Italian Communist Party. The turmoil of the late 1960s was the start of The Years of Lead (“Anni di piombo”) which is was period marked by social conflict and acts of terrorism in Italy.