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.