"BARBARIC LAND" "APRIL 29, 1945" " MILAN PIAZZALE LORETO" "THE CORPSE OF IL DUCE" ""After initiating so many massacres without images, the final images of him are those of his massacre."" "Italo Calvino" "LIBYA, 1926 DUCE'S "NAPOLEONIC" YEAR" "From the dream of the Empire's conquest to the practical transposition of the African undertaking" "ON THE WAY TO TRIPOLI, APRIL 1926" "We play and dance on the Mediterranean" "On the fringes of a Europe that today" "Rejects those who flee war and hunger" "And accept the risk of drowning at sea" "Bottomless grave" "We play and dance on the Mediterranean" "On the fringes of a Europe that today" "Rejects those who flee war and hunger" "And accept the risk of drowning at sea" "Bottomless grave" "African adventure for entrepreneurs, financiers, administrators, explorers, doctors," "priests, nuns and missionaries, all eager to tear Africans away" "from superstition and slavery." "1922-1932..." "The occupation of Libya." "No mercy for the "rebels"" "whose property is seized, be it goods or real estate." "100,000 Libyans are deported between July and December 1930." "No prisoners were taken:" "they shot everyone... men, women and children." "A HOLIDAY, ITALY 1926" "We celebrate the "new spirit" of collaboration between industrialists and the working class." "A textile firm working for the Lybian war effort." "We have found several letters" "from a young worker to her gunner fiancé stationed in Tobruk during the Libyan war." "Benvenuta, February 28," "1925." ""My dear Riccardo," "Where has our love gone?" "It isn't a passing fancy for me, you know." "Do you find me ugly, don't you?" "Or have you found a woman there?" "Unless your parents have written to you to say they weren't pleased with me," "that they would prefer a country girl." "Send me back my photo and I'll send you yours." "If you're still my Riccardo," "I send you a kiss." "Your Benvenuta." "Farewell." "Benvenuta comments on a postcard from Libya:" ""You say you laugh when you see how these people are dressed." "What look like rags to us are in fact their traditional costumes."" "CARNIVAL" "Carnival." "Carnival-time contestation was one of the tactics used by the superior "caste"" "to establish its power." "Arabs, Black Africans..." "A reference to those called "discoveries", an euphemism that designated brutal conquests." "Carnival is a corrosive acid... in actual fact, those in power rule as absolute masters." "Harsh." "Merciless." "Carnival." "Carnival-time contestation was one of the tactics used by the superior "caste"" "to establish its power." "Arabs, Black Africans..." "A reference to those called "discoveries", an euphemism" "that designated brutal conquests." "Carnival is a corrosive acid..." "In actual fact, those in power rule as absolute masters." "Harsh." "Merciless." "THE 1930s IN ITALY" "The regime's military and civilian parades" "They obeyed and collaborated in a policy" "that pursued a blood and cruel conquest." "They need uniforms... costumes... in short, it's all a matter of appearance." "Individuals, neither perverse, nor sadistic," "but normal." "Horrifyingly normal." "Fascism is a form of government" "through which a whole people can be dominated" "to the extent that it's possible to abuse them in order to dominate other peoples." "ORIGINAL TITLE-CARD 1935-1936" ""Ethiopia, for this primitive and barbaric land, the age of civilization has now arrived."" "We recently went back to search film archives" "to look for photograms of Ethiopia-Abyssinia from the Italian colonial period." "The bare bodies of the women and the "body" of the film, this stock damaged" "and torn even from countless viewings." "Certain words appear in one card after another:" ""type", "barbaric"," ""marauder"," ""primitive"," ""devious"," ""proverbial wariness"," ""bigamy"." "Zoological vocabulary is applied." "Today, here, in Europe, racism is spreading." "People arm themselves to drive out the poor and disturbing foreigners" "to send them back to their original hell." "I remember a letter from Abyssinia by Arthur Rimbaud:" ""The people of the Harar are neither more stupid, nor more dishonest" "than the white negroes of so-called "civilized" countries."" "EASTERN AFRICA, 1935-1937" "There was no conflict, no tension, no butchery, no bloodshed... and so no consequences:" "The massacres went undocumented." "A telegram from Mussolini:" ""Approval of the use of gas" ""for superior reasons of national defence." "To finish with the rebels, use gas."" ""I again authorize a policy of terror and extermination of rebels and collusive populations."" "Emperor Haile Selassie, June 30, 1936." ""The country seemed to be crumbling." "The silence became more oppressive by the day over the magnificent high plateaus" "where the horizons are so vast and so pure." "Neither men nor animals could breathe." "All living beings who had been touched by the light rain that fell from the planes," "who had drunk the poisoned water or eaten contaminated food, fled screaming and sought refuge in the huts" "or deep in the forest to die there." "There were corpses everywhere," "in every bush, in every tree," "wherever refuge seemed possible." "But there were even more spread out there" "in broad daylight, in full sight, for death arrived at top speed and many did not have time to seek a refuge to die in peace." "Very quickly, an unbearable stench spread over the whole region."" "For the Italian airmen, it was no longer a war but a game." "What risk was there in shooting the dead and the dying whose eyes had been burned by the gas?" "What risk was there in shooting" "the dead and the dying whose eyes" "had been burned by the gas?" "Telegram from Il Duce:" ""No agreement." "I want everything." "Including the emperor's head." "No one is more in favour than I am of a harsh war." "In other words, war."" "No one is more in favour than I am" "of a harsh war." "In other words, war." "1936..." "Extract from a balcony speech by Mussolini:" ""...an empire of peace because Italy wants peace, for herself and all peoples."" "But, at the time, Mussolini was already preparing the military intervention in Spain." "AN EASTERN AFRICAN WAR ALBUM 1935-1937" "An army of specialized workers, the dictatorship's labourers," "apply their efforts" "to the apparatus of destruction." "Do these men care about the consequences of their work?" "Capable of not seeing the madness and the horrors of war." "The armies of specialized workers," "the dictatorship's labourers, apply their efforts to the apparatus of destruction." "Do these men care about the consequences" "of their work?" "Capable of not seeing the madness and the horrors of the war." "Capable of not seeing the madness and the horrors of war." "Weapons of mass extermination and mustard gas bombs are loaded onto planes." "These weapons of extermination are still used today even though, as in the past, those responsible deny their use." ""Do you love me, Maria?"" "is written on the back of a photo." "The words date from May, 1936, the month of the empire's conquest." "The wife and mother." "Photos of families in Italy during the war in Eastern Africa." "The measures taken by the Fascist government to protect the race and to avoid interbreeding that was deemed unacceptable are well known." "The "Disperatata" squadron, commanded by Ciano, flies Caproni planes." "They descend to a low altitude and open fire on peasants with rifles and pistols." "The Fascist man has been perfectly educated." "He exalts drinking and eating, love, work and absence of thought." "The Ascari, the Eritrean soldiers serving in the Italian colonial army." "Ethnical hatred and religion are used as mortal weapons." "The bullet holes are painted to highlight them." "They are emblems." "The pleasure of war." "The feeling of being sheltered from need." "Physical activity." "Contact with the machines of war." "Colonial eroticism." "Could all that explain the success of Fascism?" "So that's it?" "Each period has its fascism." "Insolent and hideously farcical," "Fascism returns again." "We sense a feeling of concern." "We are plunged into a dark night, we don't know where we are going." "And you?" "Subtitles :" "Mos3n"