Il cammino degli eroi: the empire as a mark of modernity. Representations of colonial power in a famous regime documentary
This article examines the most important documentary film about the Italian ‘victory’ in Ethiopia, Il cammino degli eroi, by Corrado D’Errico (1936), the primary aim being to shed light on its complex iconographic system of representation. The first part examines the representation of the ‘African Mussolini’. In the second part, the article analyses the ‘conqueror’s gaze’ in the visual perspective employed by D’Errico in his account of the new Italian colony. The third part is devoted to arguing the juxtaposition between ‘Italian Creation and Ethiopian apocalypse’. Finally, the last part of the article deals with the reasons for the Ethiopian war.