Draquila – Italy Trembles

This documentary from Italy’s answer to Michael Moore sticks the knife into Silvio Berlusconi’s fevered response to help the victims of the earthquake in L’Aquila in April 2009, which killed 308 people. Guzzanti initially turns up in L’Aquila (following Barack Obama, George Clooney and others) wearing a Berlusconi mask, but slips more into the background for the rest of the film, mostly allowing her interviews and reportage to do the talking. The tone is of outrage. Guzzanti explains how Berlusconi used the event to boost his popularity and experiment in the suspension of civil rights and may have allowed the Civil Protection agency to exploit the disaster commercially via new construction projects (this last bit is the subject of a judicial inquiry). There are plenty of angry and despairing voices on screen. But what’s as worrying as the substance of Guzzanti’s accusations are the number of people – victims of the earthquake – prepared to praise Berlusconi to the heavens. His politics may be suspect, but his charm offensive is disarmingly effective.