The stylish new biographical drama Bitter Years retraces the real life of Mario Mieli, one of the founders of the Italian Homosexual Liberation
Movement, created in Italy at the beginning of the 1970s. An activist,
intellectual, writer and performer, Mario was a key figure on the
Italian cultural scene. Though he died way too young in 1983, his short
life was packed with powerful incident. The film follows him through his
childhood years – examining a complicated relationship with his parents
– to the last years of his life with partner Umberto Pasti – which tell
an equally difficult and intense love story.
