AllMovie

The tragic life of Italian poet Dino Campana (1885-1931) is the subject of this award-winning docudrama by Luigi Faccini. Born in Tuscany in 1885, Campana was already showing signs of mental illness at the age of 15 when he had his first breakdown. Intermittent visits and stays in mental institutions followed for several years, before he was permanently institutionalized in 1918. In this story the hospitalized Campana (Bruno Zanin) is visited regularly by a psychiatrist who clearly covets any writing the poet may have produced that has not yet come to light. He is already famous for his Canti Orifici published in 1914. Campana, who has no illusions when it comes to literary parasites, finds a clever way to put this doctor-cum-literary vulture in his place. In the meantime, the embittered poet remembers his brief love affair with the writer Sibilla Aleramo (Olga Karlatos) in flashbacks.