I DON'T NEED TO STAY CALM
Errico Malatesta, the extraordinary life of the most feared Italian revolutionary

A biographical narrative in memory of Errico Malatesta 80 years after his death

Rome November 10, 1931. In his apartment in via Andrea Doria in Rome's Trionfale district an old man is under house arrest - an oxygen cylinder next to his bed, two policemen outside his door. As he thinks back to his long and adventurous life of plots, escapes, strikes and insurrections, he has neither nostalgia nor regrets. His memories become a sort of theatre of memory, a political weapon. As a deceiving clock counts away the hours, the man who was once acclaimed as the "Lenin of Italy" looks back at his existence: when he lead his first insurrection attempt in the province of Benevento, his subsequent imprisonment, his years of exile in London, his adventurous activism in Argentina, his secret return to Italy and finally the factories occupation during the Biennio rosso between 1919 and 1920. Sixty years of anarchism, revolts and revolutions intertwine with the history of Italy and and the struggles of labor movement all over the world. Though exausted and haunted by the fascists, the old man looks back at his past and is at peace with himself. He never won, yet he does not feel vanquished nor has he any intention to abandon the fight. He doesn't need to keep calm.