PRODUCTION / FUNDING Belgium / Italy / Germany

It’s a wrap for Anne Paulicevich's The Man Who Could Have Changed the World

13/02/2026 - The Belgian filmmaker has just wrapped shooting in Belgium, Italy and Germany on an ambitious historical film with darkly comic overtones and contemporary resonance

Elio Germano in front of Titian's Venus of Urbino (Uffizi Gallery, with permission from the Italian Ministry of Culture) in The Man Who Could Have Changed the World

Belgian filmmaker Anne Paulicevich is currently in the thick of editing The Man Who Could Have Changed the World, which tells the story of an archaeologist who serves as a tour guide to Mussolini and Hitler during the latter’s visit to Italy. Politically opposed to the two leaders’ ideas, he will have to confront the inner conflicts that consume him (and far more). On the eve of war, must one and can one resist? And how? This historical film in German and Italian is directed by a French-speaking filmmaker (also the screenwriter behind Frédéric Fonteyne’s Tango Libre [+see also:
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film profile], awarded the Special Jury Prize in Venice’s Orizzonti section, and also Fonteyne’s co-director on Working Girls [+see also:
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Suffice to say the stakes are high for Versus Production, the Liège-based company which developed the project. "It’s clear this film is a major challenge," explains producer Jacques-Henri Bronckart. "First of all, we worked hard on the screenplay. The film is set just before the Second World War, at a pivotal historical moment in time which we don’t actually know that much about. In 1938, Italy and Germany were on the verge of forming an alliance, and Mussolini really did host Hitler for a four-day state visit. Anne Paulicevich carried out extensive research: she worked with historians, and she also had access to the personal archives of Bandinelli, the famous guide who really did exist. And then she imagined how he might have acted in a parallel world. The idea is to make a dark comedy of sorts, despite the dramatic nature of the subject. We had to strike a subtle balance between the period-film aspect, the project’s specific tone, and the political charge the story might carry today. We’ve been developing this project for more than seven years, and the world has changed drastically since then. Ultimately, in today’s context, it’s as if Bandinelli were to unwittingly find himself taking Trump and Putin on a tour around the Louvre. It’s about extremism, violence, shock and resistance."

In the role of Bandinelli, we find Elio Germano (an Italian actor with six David di Donatello awards under his belt, named Best Actor in Cannes for Our Life [+see also:
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making of
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interview: Giorgio Diritti
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interview: Andrea Segre
film profile], as well as Three Bowls [+see also:
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interview: Edward Berger
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interview: Pietro Marcello
interview: Valeria Bruni Tedeschi
film profile]) plays Mussolini. Although the shoot was spread across three countries, the team gained access to prestigious locations such as the Baths of Caracalla and the Galleria Borghese which proved a particularly stimulating playground for multi-award-winning director of photography Manu Dacosse, who’s handling cinematography.