Benito: The Rise and Fall of Mussolini

A Man Named Benito is the story of the young Benito Mussolini. It is the drama of a man whose lust for power unleashed a reign of terror, the chilling account of how an ambitious young schoolteacher became the dictator of a major European country.

When a fatal accident occurs on the building-site - a worker plunges to his death from a badly-secured section of scaffolding - the young student Mussolini calls for a general strike. Arrest and expulsion are the consequences of this first piece of agitation, and it is only the intervention of his influential friend Angelika which saves him from being thrown into jail.

While the Italian Nationalists are urging the country to take part in the war, the left wing builds its support on the pacifist strength of the "Socialist International": the workers of Europe must unite against the imperialist warmongers! Now that those in power represent a common enemy, Mussolini - via an adroit move - succeeds in uniting the warring left-wing factions.