Bellocchio ventures down a dark alley of Italy’s unofficial history through the story of Ida Dalser, a lover and supporter of Il Duce when he was an ambitious, unorthodox socialist. Unlike the standard historical recreation, Vincere is an intimate, torrential—at times operatic—drama from the point of view of one of Mussolini’s first victims. Drifting seamlessly from actual archival footage to the passionate lovers caught up in revolution, the film swiftly shifts its focus to the abandoned wife who gave him all of her possessions as well as his first son. As Mussolini’s power grows, hers diminishes, yet her voice only grows louder and more determined, demanding that she and her child be officially acknowledged. Its searing exploration of power, desire, defiance and submission is punctuated by revealing scenes of audiences in movie theaters—indicating the burgeoning role of the motion picture in the political and emotional life of a society, Bellocchio’s own audience pointedly included.