Mark Cousins has an overwhelming, contagious passion for cinema. He once directed The Story of Film: An Odyssey, and now it will be his latest work, The March on Rome, to open the nineteenth edition of the Venice Days programme as special event. The film has been inspired by a philologically correct reading of A Noi, a 1923 film by Umberto Paradisi and the official film manifesto of the Italian Fascist Party. Written together with Tony Saccucci, the film has been produced by PalomarDOC and Luce Cinecittà in cooperation with essay publisher Il Saggiatore. Alba Rohrwacher stars as Anna, a working-class woman that is initially fascinated by the new regime, though she’ll end up bitterly disappointed in the end. “Italy – said the director – is the most visually inspirational country I know, and I loved making a movie on the culture of images.”