Videocracy

A cross section of the "videocracy" in contemporary Italy, where Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has both politics and the media around his little finger. opens with a clip from the very first commercial TV broadcast in Italian history. In the show, viewers have to call the studio to answer questions; for every correct response, a masked housewife in the studio has to remove an article of clothing in a suggestive manner. The film explains that this was "the beginning of the cultural revolution" that has turned Italy into what it now is: a country in which power and media attention are one and the same. Director Erik Gandini focuses on the twilight zone between the reality of TV and the real world that constantly follows its example, and reveals the processes that are found in between. Born and raised in Italy, Gandini moved to Sweden when he was 18, which puts him in the unique position of an expert outsider. He knows the country and its faults well enough to get unprecedented access to his subject matter, all the way up to Lele Mora, the puppeteer behind "the television of the president." But at the same time, Gandini can interpret his material from a distance, without getting sucked into Berlusconi's media merry-go-round like so many other potential critics.