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Long Live Freedom

Long Live Freedom 2013

Directed by

Roberto Andò

Roberto Andò

Made by

BiBi Film

BiBi Film

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Long Live Freedom Plot Summary

Read the complete plot summary and ending explained for Long Live Freedom (2013). From turning points to emotional moments, uncover what really happened and why it matters.


In this chilling story about world politics, Enrico Oliveri, Toni Servillo defies expectations by embodying two intertwined figures: the disgraced ideologue and party leader, and his shrewd, unhinged twin who seizes control in the wake of Enrico’s disappearance, Giovanni Ernani, Toni Servillo. As the national election approaches, Enrico Oliveri has plummeted in the polls, and his supporters and adversaries alike begin to acknowledge his impending downfall. Unwilling to face the failure of his party and his nation, Enrico vanishes into the night. The party leadership tries to hedge for time by concealing Enrico’s disappearance with a series of acrobatic sidesteps. In a desperate move, right-hand man Andrea Bottini, Valerio Mastandrea, seeks out Enrico’s look-alike twin, Giovanni Ernani, a prolific author and philosopher freshly released from an insane asylum. Ernani takes the public stage, delivering interviews, giving speeches, and presiding over conferences with a fearless, almost prophetic verve, injecting a revolutionary wind into politics—creativity at the helm, poetry that leaves opponents and voters alike astonished.

The film then threads a tense, two-handed dance between the two faces of power: the earnest intellectual and the audacious, calculating madman. It probes the driving forces behind our contemporary global political reality, leaving a rich web of questions about truth, illusion, and the true cost of political power. Danielle, Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, a Paris-based secretary and Enrico’s former lover, is drawn back into the orbit of power as she navigates a life married to the celebrated Chinese director Mung, Eric Nguyen, with their daughter Hélène, Stella Kent. Back in Italy, Anna, Anna, Michela Cescon, Enrico’s wife, and Bottini maneuver to steer the crisis, while the pair’s entanglement with Danielle—who remains at the center of both personal and political storms—adds a dangerous layer to the saga. The narrative foregrounds a striking dynamic: two brothers, united in desire for the same woman, collide with a nation’s fate, and the line between genuine truth and manufactured power becomes increasingly blurred. In this provocative thriller, the truth about power unfolds as a volatile, strategic game where private loyalties collide with public spectacle, and the stakes could redefine what a nation believes to be true.

Long Live Freedom Timeline

Follow the complete movie timeline of Long Live Freedom (2013) with every major event in chronological order. Great for understanding complex plots and story progression.


Polls fall as Enrico vanishes

As election season nears, Enrico Oliveri's poll numbers crater and he suddenly disappears into the night. The party leadership scrambles to manage the crisis, employing evasive statements and public placation to avoid acknowledging the disappearance. The nation watches as uncertainty spreads, setting the stage for an extraordinary political maneuver.

Days before the election Rome, Italy

The party conceals the vanishing with spin

Leaders attempt to hedge for time by weaving a narrative that keeps Enrico's fate off the front pages. They deploy calculated press briefings and strategic gaps in the timeline to buy breathing room. The public is fed a sanitized image while the underlying crisis simmers.

Immediate aftermath of disappearance Party HQ, Rome

A look-alike is recruited to fill the void

Andrea Bottini identifies Enrico's twin, Giovanni Ernani, freshly released from an insane asylum, as a public stand-in. The plan is to stage a credible return that preserves the party's image and buys time. The arrangement deepens the mystery surrounding who is in control.

Days after disappearance Italian political circuit

Ernani emerges and is activated

Ernani is brought into the limelight, stepping into the breach with a fearless, prophetic cadence. He begins delivering interviews and opening conferences as if he is the nation’s authentic voice. His presence throws the political landscape into sharper relief.

Shortly after release from asylum Public venues across Italy

Ernani's public persona takes hold

Public interviews and speeches mushroom, and Ernani exudes a revolutionary wind that unsettles opponents and voters alike. Creativity becomes his instrument as he shapes the narrative with poetic rhetoric. The crowds respond with astonishment and cautious optimism.

During election season TV studios, conference halls

Two faces of power collide on the national stage

The film follows a tense dance between Enrico's earnest intellect and Ernani's audacious madness. The twin-like figures project competing visions, pulling the electorate in opposing directions. This dual presence blurs where truth ends and performance begins.

Ongoing from Ernani's entrance National political arena

Danielle returns to the orbit of power

Danielle, a Paris-based secretary and Enrico's former lover, is drawn back into the crisis as personal loyalties are caught in the political storm. She navigates a life split between Enrico's shadow and her marriage to the celebrated Chinese director Mung. Her presence threads personal stakes through the political drama.

During the crisis Paris and Italy

Anna and Bottini maneuver behind the scenes

Anna and Bottini press their advantage, steering the crisis with calculated moves while managing their own entanglements with Danielle. They weigh public perception against private loyalties, threading alliances that could define the outcome. The behind-the-scenes chess game continues as the country watches.

Crisis phase Italy, political backrooms

Love, loyalty and power collide

Danielle's pull toward Enrico, and Ernani's proximity as a rival, intensify the personal stakes. The same woman becomes a focal point of competing loyalties, complicating decisions that affect the nation's fate. The line between truth and manufactured power grows increasingly blurred.

Crisis peak Between Paris and Rome

Two brothers and the nation's fate converge

The film frames Enrico and Ernani as two faces of power, united by a single desire yet pulling in opposite directions. Their rivalry directly intersects with the country’s electoral trajectory, threatening to redefine what the public believes to be true. The stakes escalate into a volatile political game.

Election timeframe climax National stage

Questioning truth: illusion versus reality

As events unfold, the story probes what drives political reality—the belief in power, the manipulation of information, or authentic conviction. It examines how truth becomes a commodity in a crowded media landscape. The tension between private loyalties and public spectacle deepens the drama.

Throughout the film Global political imagination

The truth about power remains volatile

The film closes by emphasizing the fragility of truth in politics as the nation watches. The outcome leaves power’s costs and consequences in question, with no clear resolution. Viewers are left to ponder what was real and what was constructed in the pursuit of leadership.

After the events Nationwide

Long Live Freedom Characters

Explore all characters from Long Live Freedom (2013). Get detailed profiles with their roles, arcs, and key relationships explained.


Enrico Oliveri (Toni Servillo)

Disgraced ideologue and party leader whose polling collapse foreshadows a national crisis. When he vanishes, his look-alike twin steps into the spotlight, testing the boundaries between truth and performance. The twin's emergence turns the election into a duel between two faces of power, forcing allies and opponents to reassess loyalties.

🎭 Political Leader 🧠 Intellectual 🔄 Dual Identity

Giovanni Ernani (Toni Servillo)

Enrico's look-alike twin, an author and philosopher granted a fresh public stage after release from an asylum. He speaks with fearless, prophetic verve, delivering interviews and conferences that electrify audiences. His calculated charisma injects a revolutionary wind into politics, complicating the nation's perception of truth.

🎭 Political Doppelgänger 🧠 Intellectual ⚡ Charismatic

Danielle (Valeria Bruni Tedeschi)

Paris-based secretary and Enrico's former lover who re-enters the power orbit as the crisis unfolds. Married to Mung and mother to Hélène, she navigates competing loyalties, balancing personal history with political realities. Her role anchors the intersection between private relationships and public spectacle.

💼 Secretary 🌐 Paris Connection 🤝 Power Ally

Anna (Michela Cescon)

Enrico's wife who remains in Italy, maneuvering with Bottini to steer the crisis. Her actions reflect how personal bonds influence strategy and decision-making under pressure. The coupling of romance and politics tests loyalty as the election looms.

💑 Wife 🎯 Political Ally 🤝 Strategic

Andrea Bottini (Valerio Mastandrea)

Right-hand man tasked with steering the party through turbulence. He orchestrates behind-the-scenes moves and negotiates loyalties, often balancing personal and political stakes. His loyalty is tested as Danielle and Anna's entanglements pull the crisis in multiple directions.

🎯 Strategist 🤝 Loyalist 🌀 Power Broker

Mung (Eric Nguyen)

Danielle's husband and the father of Hélène, a steadying constant amid political upheaval. He becomes part of the moral and practical calculus surrounding Danielle's influence and the couple's role in shaping outcomes.

👨‍👧 Family man 🏛️ Political tie 💔 Complicated

Hélène (Stella Kent)

Daughter of Danielle and Mung, a personal stake in the power drama. Her presence underscores how international relationships and family loyalties intersect with national politics, adding emotional weight to the strategic decisions of adults.

🧒 Daughter 🌍 Cross-cultural 💖 Family ties

Long Live Freedom Settings

Learn where and when Long Live Freedom (2013) takes place. Explore the film’s settings, era, and how they shape the narrative.


Location

Italy, Paris

Set against Italy's intense national political arena and scenes in Paris, the film weaves together rallies, conferences, and backroom strategizing. It follows how power is exercised through public performances and private maneuvering as the election looms. The locations emphasize the global stakes of a national crisis and how personal loyalties influence public decisions.

🏛️ Italy 🗼 Paris

Long Live Freedom Themes

Discover the main themes in Long Live Freedom (2013). Analyze the deeper meanings, emotional layers, and social commentary behind the film.


🧭

Power

The film frames power as a game of appearances and strategic moves. Enrico's disappearance creates a vacuum that Giovanni fills with a crafted public persona and speeches. The dynamic raises questions about what constitutes true authority when leadership relies on spectacle as much as substance. The narrative presents power as something negotiated between public theater and private calculation, capable of reshaping a nation's fate.

🎭

Identity

Two brothers embody rival paths to influence—an earnest intellectual and a fearless manipulator—teasing the line between truth and illusion. Giovanni's look-alike role exposes how identity can be manufactured for political ends. The film explores how audiences project credibility onto charisma and rhetoric rather than verifiable facts. Personal loyalties collide with public personas, revealing the fragility of fixed identities.

🎨

Art in Politics

Rhetoric and creativity drive political life as Ernani delivers speeches with poetic verve, redefining what counts as legitimacy. The story ties artistic expression to political power, suggesting that art can legitimize governance as much as policy. The private entanglements of lovers and colleagues become instruments in a broader political theatre. The film argues that governance can resemble an evolving work of art, subject to interpretation and manipulation.

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Long Live Freedom Spoiler-Free Summary

Discover the spoiler-free summary of Long Live Freedom (2013). Get a concise overview without any spoilers.


In the restless weeks leading up to a national election, a once‑dominant opposition party finds itself teetering on the edge of irrelevance. The political arena is a pressure‑cooked arena of media frenzy, public disillusionment, and hidden agendas, where a single misstep can spiral into a scandal that could topple the entire establishment. Amid this volatile backdrop, the party’s charismatic yet embattled leader disappears, leaving his inner circle scrambling to prevent a catastrophic loss of credibility.

Desperate to preserve the party’s image, the strategists turn to an unlikely saviour: the identical twin of the vanished figure. Giovanni Ernani, a reclusive philosopher recently released from a psychiatric ward and wrestling with borderline personality disorder, is coaxed into stepping into the public eye. His intellectual rigor and unfiltered honesty clash dramatically with the polished, rehearsed rhetoric of modern politics, creating a strange alchemy that both fascinates and unsettles voters.

The story pivots around the uneasy alliance between the twin’s raw, poetic vision and the seasoned operatives trying to harness it. Andrea Bottini, the loyal right‑hand man, must balance the twin’s unpredictable temperament with the ruthless demands of the campaign machine, while Anna, the leader’s devoted spouse, watches the charade unfold with a mix of hope and dread. The film’s tone is a chilly, thought‑provoking thriller that blends satire with earnest inquiry, probing the fragile line between authenticity and performance in contemporary governance.

Through tight, atmospheric storytelling, the narrative paints a portrait of a nation on the brink, where the ordinary rules of power are upended by an intellectual rebel who speaks in unsettling truths. The tension between calculated politicking and spontaneous insight fuels a mounting curiosity, leaving the audience to wonder how far the party will go—and what the public will accept—in its frantic bid to stay afloat.

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