Few European intellectuals have inspired as much admiration and hatred, as much praise and rejection, as Antonio Negri. Few have lived such a turbulent life. Antonio Negri was a university professor, philosopher, activist, fugitive, enemy of the state – and to this day remains a leading figure of a neo-Marxist current of Operaism. The film paints the portrait of a life in revolt – a revolt that never ends.

July 1, 1997. An older man lands in Italy on a flight from Paris. A special unit of the Carabinieri arrests him immediately. After 15 years in exile, Antonio Negri had voluntarily returned to his homeland. The newspaper Libération hailed it as “The Devil’s Return.”
Over the years, few intellectuals have provoked as much admiration and hatred, as much praise and rejection, as Antonio Negri. His book Empire, co-written with Michael Hardt, became an international bestseller. A critical analysis of the new global economy, celebrated as a bold new manifesto for the 21st century, made Negri overnight a leading voice of international globalization critique.
ANTONIO NEGRI – A Revolt That Never Ends traces the controversial life of this university professor, philosopher, activist, prisoner, refugee, and so-called “enemy of the state.” The film explores Negri’s roots in the radical leftist movements of 1960s and 1970s Italy, enriched with archival material of workers’ strikes, factory occupations, violent street clashes, political repression, and trials against dissidents.

During these turbulent decades, Negri was branded an evil ideologue with alleged links to the Red Brigades terrorist group. He spent ten years in prison and fourteen years in exile in Paris, where he engaged in philosophical debates with thinkers such as Deleuze and Guattari. The film includes interviews with Negri conducted after his release in April 2003, along with appearances at seminars and protest events. These are complemented by commentary from his co-author Michael Hardt as well as Italian and French colleagues and comrades.

Against the backdrop of an ever-relevant critique of neoliberal capitalism, Negri discusses the dangers posed by the economic, cultural, and legal upheavals driven by globalization – as well as the opportunities to resist them. ANTONIO NEGRI illuminates the lifelong political struggle of this visionary theorist, whose ideas remain significant today – for instance in Empire and its sequel Multitude: War and Democracy in the Age of Empire, an intellectual counter-project to the capitalist global order.

Funded by the German Federal Cultural Foundation and the Baden-Württemberg Film Fund (MFG).