Friday Movies @ NCPL, Welcome Mr. President: LIU Professor Valerie Franco screens independent and foreign films at North Castle Library on Friday nights.

This Italian farce explores a novel concept: what would happen if an honest man ends up in charge of a very corrupt system? Starring Claudio Bisio, one of Italy’s most lauded comedic actors, this comedy takes us into that most unscrupulous of environments-  the world of politics. In Italian with English subtitles.

Synopsis

Giuseppe Garibaldi is a modest librarian and fisherman in a small town in Piedmont. In a contentious election year, he unexpectedly becomes Italy’s president when a protest vote movement casts the winning vote for Giuseppe Garibaldi, the Italian general and contributor to Italian unification.

When the vote is confirmed the party leaders are in shock and want to immediately nullify the vote: the only problem is that there is an eligible citizen with that same exact name, so by law he has to become president. That man is Giuseppe Garibaldi, the librarian-fisher. The party leaders want him to resign, but as Giuseppe understands the spreading corruption of Italian politics, he refuses. Giuseppe, friend of the people, begins to do many good works, earning him popular support. Meanwhile, the leaders of the political parties try to impeach him.

Friday Movies @ NCPL: Professor Franco leads a lecture discussion following each film.