A documentary film that offers a scathing portrait of Silvio Berlusconi’s tenure as Italy’s prime minister has had its premiere in Italy postponed at the request of the government there. “Girlfriend in a Coma†was to be shown in Rome on Feb. 13, but is now scheduled to be exhibited only after Feb. 24, the date of a national election in which Mr. Berlusconi is a candidate.
Despite its title, drawn from a song by The Smiths,†“Girlfriend in a Coma†examines Italy’s economic and political decline over the past two decades. Mr. Berlusconi, whose party recent polls show running a close second in the coming election, was in power most of the second half of that period, and is blamed in the film for many of the country’s ills.
“Girlfriend in a Coma†was directed and co-written by the Italian journalist Annalisa Piras, with Bill Emmott, a former editor at The Economist and athor of the book “Good Italy, Bad Italy,†credited as her co-writer. The film has already been shown in the United States and Britain, and had been booked by Rome’s prestigious MAXXI Museum of 21st Century Art for a special initial screening for an invited audience of politicians, diplomats, journalists and business leaders â€" until the Ministry of Culture intervened.
“I find myself asking: would this have happened in any other western democracy†Mr. Emmott said in a statement on the film’s Web site. “The reasoning provided by MAXXI is that as a private foundation running a museum under the control of the Ministry of Culture, they are not allowed to host events that could be considered to be ‘political,’ given the imminence of the general elections.†But, he added, “the oddest point is that no one at MAXXI has actually watched our film, nor even asked to see it.â€
