Though Il Divo may be a portrait of Giulio Andreotti, senator for life, three-time prime minister, and one of the most powerful men in Italy-it is simultaneously a biting dissection of Italian post-war politics, beginning with Andreotti’s formative years and concluding with his seventh government’s trials for Mafia connections. Director Sorrentino avoids the conventions of standard biopics and presents Andreotti as a character as well as a real man, one whose life was glamorous, enigmatic, and rife with controversy-much like the Italian political machine itself. Andreotti is presented as bewildering, complex, hard to like and equally hard to condemn. At times caustically funny, Il Divo\ reaches beyond the picaresque history lessons of The Best of Youth and reignites Italian cinema. The winner of the Jury Prize at Cannes in 2008 features a standout performance from Toni Servillo in the role of Il Divo.