Soon after the introduction of talkies, dubbing came about in the thirties. Dubbing was extremely popular in Italy and remains so today.

Schools in fascist Italy banned the study of dialects and moved to using standardized textbooks. The fascist hymn “Viva Adua nostra” refers to a battle won by the Kingdom of Italy in 1896 near Adwa, Ethiopia.

This segment opens with a sort of poem, demonstrating how kids growing up in fascist Italy were expected to behave. Minority groups had a pretty hard time, too.

Mussolini inveighs against the middle class, saying that it is the enemy of fascism. Much of the footage in this segment features EUR, the Rome district that was built in the 30s and 40s.

The segment looks at the Royal Academy of Italy's dictionary of Italian, which was filled with quotes from Mussolini. By the end of World War II, the dictionary had gotten to the letter “C.”

After the war came TV. It changed everything, and provided a new way to unify the Italian language and teach people reading and writing.

The narrator goes over the vanishingly small number of expressions coined during Mussolini's time that are still in use today. The song that gives the series its name is provided in full.

This documentary opens with some lines from a poem by Pier Paolo Pasolini, “10 giugno” from 1962. The famous filmmaker and poet talks about his life, beginning with his troubled relationship with his father.

Pasolini talks about his first book of poetry and what he realized about his country when it was published in 1942. He explains why reviewers wouldn't touch it.

Pasolini talks about the Italian language and how it has been transformed over the years.

Pasolini talks about how artists are always controversial. They are a living protest. His protest involves language and national identity.

Pasolini talks about how he moved from literature to cinema, and how his ideas about language changed. He talked about providing Italians with an opportunity to demonstrate racism, perhaps for the first time, with his movie, Accattone.

In this segment, we're on the set with Pasolini as he shouts directions to Totò through his megaphone, and at the same time discusses the shoot with his crew. Naturally, authenticity often means people speak over each other, so it's hard to understand what is said. Then, Pasolini is asked by a journalist about his views on neorealism and here, the speech is clearer (and interesting), so don't give up!

Pasolini is asked what he thinks about progress and development. He is also asked about the inspiration he seems to have taken from subjects of the New Testament of the Bible.

Pasolini doesn't want to talk about his enemies, but does talk about the people he loves the most: simple folk, who might not have even finished grade school. For his early films, he took inspiration from Antonio Gramsci.