The film-makers of Rose Island try their best to inject a hefty dose of idealism in an otherwise prosaic and (understandably) obscure 60s story. In 1967, an engineer by the name of Giorgio Rosa built a concrete platform, 11 kilometres off the coast of Rimini, with the purpose of making it into a tax-free bar. Being true to the offbeat spirit of 60s (but also to his business side), he decided to declare it an independent republic, but as he failed to be taken seriously by the United Nations, the Italian authorities ended up demolishing it. There is absolutely no evidence - not even in the film itself - to suggest of even the slightest serious intention in Rosa to actually build a progressive, "utopian" country. Rosa was audacious, but he had no real political aspirations. Which brings us again to the film-makers, who choose to refashion Rosa's endeavour as a struggle for freedom, resulting in a lack of the kind of down-to-earth humour that stories as such invoke. Instead we get a light dramatic comedy that takes itself too seriously.
Review of Rose Island
