Gentle, amusing Italian film about a quirky and awkward young engineer who builds a platform off the Adriatic coast near the resort town of Rimini, declares an island and independent, and then runs it a bit like a beach club. We're sort of in the Italian version of 'Passport to Pimlico' here, with a sort of Tory anarchism that celebrates escaping from the control of the state, but appears not to want to do anything particularly out-of-control apart from circumventing what are seen as petty regulations.
Because it's the Italian version, the state is both more ridiculous and more sinister, but it's the same sort of territory. And whereas the British version was set against a background of post-war austerity and rationing (which don't happen in the independent state of Pimlico), the Italian version takes place in 1968, with the somewhat spurious suggestion that the independence of Rose Island is somehow linked to the wave of protests sweeping Europe at the time.
There are nice Italian settings and food, some nice music, and some pretty people dancing on the 'island', which looks a lot like an offshore oil platform.
Fun fact...I was probably only a few miles away at the time. We had a few family holidays in the late 1960s in the resorts of Cattolica and Lido di Jesolo, just down the road from Rimini.
Watched on Netflix.
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