Lo scandalo della Banca Romana

SYNOPSIS

Mattia Barba, a young journalist in search of success, is forced to close his newspaper "The Cefalù Courier", because his fellow Sicilians do not seem to be interested in reading the truth. He decides to go to Rome because he is convinced that there he will able to write freely for newspapers such as "Il Popolo Italiano" (The Italian People), to broadcast the truth from the rooftops and change the world. At the time Mattia's story takes place, Italy was seething with a scandal which eventually involved politicians, public officials, businessmen, members of parliament and even three prime minister. It was a scandal which showed to the entire country a panorama of devastating corruption and scheming among bankers, businessmen, the clergy, journalists, politicians and the Mafia. Mattia also finds himself dragged into this net of unprecedented corruption and finds himself forced to make a difficult moral choice: on the one hand, the simple, concrete ethics practiced by his father. On the other, the moral code adopted by his fascinating director, caustically summed up by Diderot in "The Man and the Moral" as "Man's only duty is to make himself happy". The young Sicilian journalist is initially dazzled by his new life in the capital, by the prospect of rapid and brilliant success and his love for Renata, a beautiful singer. Only gradually does he begins to realise the innate cruently of the system and to accept that he must pay a personal price to recover his integrity and honesty and to unmask those responsible.