Loro is the most recent work from Italian auteur Paolo Sorrentino. It’s a garish, provocative biopic of Italy's most infamous political figure since Mussolini: Silvio Berlusconi. The story is told in a very unusual way; Berlusconi himself doesn’t appear until at least half an hour into the film. Instead we follow a slimy, young wheeler dealer whose whole business plan is to fill a villa next door to Berlusconi's in Sardinia with a veritable battalion of escorts, to try and catch Berlusconi's attention. This plotline is one of several clever and ridiculous ways in which Sorrentino builds expectation for the arrival of the gargantuan figure of Berlusconi. The film wallows in the excessive spectacle that Sorrentino is so capable of whipping up, a dizzying music video of escorts, drugs and desperation in modern Italy.

When Berlusconi finally does pitch up, he's a figure of absurdity, less the sleazy, corrupt politician the media has portrayed to us, and more a lonely man, with a plastic smile glued to his face and a crippling inability to convince his wife that he's still worth loving. Toni Servillo, Sorrentino's go-to lead, captures that melancholy-concealing bravado with great skill, portraying Berlusconi like he's some sort of alien, cursed with a reputation so mysterious and threatening that he's isolated in his own weird little world.

Plot-wise the film carries on exploring various real life occurrences: his re-election and his response to the L'Aquila earthquake of 2009. Whilst at no point dull, the narrative weight is massively lopsided; characters who appear of great significance wander out of the film altogether. Similarly, Sorrentino never decides how we are supposed to feel about Berlusconi. If you were confused about him in real life, you'll find no help here. As the end approaches, the film becomes almost frustratingly enigmatic. Even the voyeuristic pleasure of witnessing one of Berlusconi's infamous parties is neutered, as it turns out to be a flop. And then, just as you’re wondering where this could possibly all go, the end happens. A sweeping, beautiful and completely unexpected sequence in which we watch firemen and volunteers, dirtied and drained, as they work deep into the night to salvage the statue of Christ from a church in L'Aquila. It’s moving, in spite of bearing no real relation to anything we've seen before. Sorrentino's magic somehow connects the dots for us. A unique, flawed and emotive biopic, which reveals itself less about Silvio and more about Italy.

EveryFilmIWatch is multi-channel film review project run by Sebastian Cox, ScriptUp co-founder. Further reviews can be found on Instagram.