Overview

• The drama follows a fictional head of state weighing whether to sign a euthanasia bill and whether to grant two murder pardons.
• Toni Servillo portrays the president, with Anna Ferzetti as his lawyer daughter urging him to act.
• Paolo Sorrentino said Sergio Mattarella’s 2019 clemency decision inspired the story’s exploration of moral responsibility.
• Italy has no national right-to-die statute, and the subject remains a sensitive political issue.
• The competition title pairs an austere tone with Sorrentino’s surreal flourishes and is vying for Venice’s Golden Lion.