Franco Battiato: The Long Journey

Renato De Maria's 2026 Italian television film covers the early years of the musician Franco Battiato: leaving Sicily, arriving in Milan, and the encounters on the road to success. The story is built less as a summary of a career than as an inner journey, with Battiato's already spiritual and mystical inclination at the centre. Dario Aita's performance refuses impersonation and tries to build the character from inside rather than outside. The film's problem is that it never escapes the familiar shape of the television biography: chronological progression, scenes that summarise periods, familiar songs carrying the story. The genuine strangeness of Battiato's music does not quite fit the film's measured tone. The section on the return to Sicily works best. Who it's for: viewers interested in Italian popular music and Franco Battiato's work. Who it's not for: anyone who does not know Battiato and will be unfamiliar with the music, or who is tired of the television biography template.