REDENZIONE was directed by Marcello Albani and premiered in February 1943. It is considered a top propaganda film, as the script was written by one of Italian Fascism's founders and leaders, Roberto Farinacci (1892–1945) who was eventually executed by Italian partisans at the end of WWII, on 28 April 1945.  The photo at the right of this paragraph shows Farinacci (at left) sitting next to Gauleiter Julius Streicher in Berlin  in January 1939.

A German press photo from our Collection below shows a reception where Italian Ambassador to the Reich, Alfieri, is shaking hands with Dr. Goebbels. The man standing at their left is Roberto Farinacci, State Minister and Fascist Party ideologue, who wrote the script for the film Redenzione.  The photo was taken on October 1, 1940 at the Hotel Adlon, Berlin.

REDENZIONE / REDEMPTION

The film's plot centers on a young man who after deserting from the Italian Army in the closing stages of the First World War,  in 1922 has joined the Reds  to fight against the growing Fascist movement. Day by day however, he realizes that he is more sympathetic to the ideals of nationalism and fascism, and he repudiates Marxism and joins a group of Fascist comrades. Ashamed of his communist past, he makes the ultimate sacrifice for the Movement, a few days before the March on Rome, and is "redeemed."  One film historian stated that the film of this young man was the "Hitlerjunge Quex" film of Italy.

The film's star was Mario Ferrari, who made twenty-four films betweeen 1937 and 1943, including GIARIBUB, LUCIANO SERRA, PILOT and Luis Trenker's CONDOTTIERI. 

In 2005, an Italian film A LUCI SPENTE (Lights Off) was released which uses the filming of REDENZIONE in 1942/43 to tell the story of a famous actress who is caught up with the film's producer and both the  Fascists and partisans.

REDENZIONE remains banned and no copies, either commercial or 'pirated,'  are circulating as at 2013.

BELOW  from our Collection are  four rare star photos specific to the film, and three ultra–rare original glossies. Two Fotobusta from this film can also be found  in our Poster Gallery. Also shown is a page from the popular weekly film magazine, FILM - Sentimanale di Cinematografo Teatro e Radi, N. 13, 11 Aprile 1942 with a fifteen small film scenes reproduced for readers.

The film's Director, Marcello Albani, was born in New York City in 1905 to an Italian immigrant family, but returned to Italy to join the growing film industry there in the 1930's. His first screenplay was used in a 1936 film. He directed only four films for Fascist Italy –– all  shot between 1940 and 1943 ––  and directed just one after the end of the war, in 1946.