A depressed Italian politician is replaced by his odd twin brother.

Picture gallery

Facing disagreement from all sides, the secretary of Italy’s leading opposition party, Enrico Oliveri (Toni Servillo), is having a nervous breakdown. Instead of confronting his problems, he runs away and hides in Paris. There he stays at the home of an old flame whom he knew in Cannes when he was young, who is now married and has a little girl. To cover Oliveri’s absence, his assistant finds his twin brother Giovanni Ernani (Toni Servillo), who has spent most of his life in a psychiatric clinic, and replaces him in Oliveri’s post. And so a crazy but nice man ends up negotiating with powerful people from around the world,. He wins over the press in no time and even gets the party climbing in the polls, thanks to his flair and his joie de vivre...

Borrowing from the classic Being There with Peter Sellers, the likeable Viva la libertà offers the comical hypothesis that the insane would make better politicians that those actually in office. Given the endless slew of political scandals in Western politics, audiences may agree.