'Rose Island' Ending Explained: Micronation's journey may have ended but Rosa's love story has just begun
Spoilers for 'Rose Island'
While the world is familiar with the story of an idealistic engineer who built his own country known as Rose Island, the Netflix film of the same name directed by Sydney Sibilia follows the story of Giorgio Rosa (Elio Germano) building his own micronation as a way to let experience freedom without any external pressure, especially after being sick of the stuffy rules of Italian society of the late 60s. He was wrong though as the Authorities took complete offense and made it their life goal to shut down the country built on steel and concrete.
The final 30 minutes of the film sees Rosa desperately attempt to save the island from the authorities as they look to raze it to the ground. Fabrizio Bentivoglio as Franco Restivo decides to issue the order to the Navy to bring down the structure and the move surprises even Giovanni Leone (Luca Zingaretti) who gives explicit instructions to get the micronation off the map. With time running out for Rosa, he makes a last-ditch effort to go save his island and is joined by Gabriella (Matilda De Angelis) who also understands Rosa's love for her and the logic behind keeping his "country" safe.
The rest of the group comprising of W.R. Neumann (Tom Wlaschiha ), Maurizio Orlandini (Leonardo Lidi), Pietro Bernardini (Alberto Astorri), and Franca (Violetta Zironi) unite as the Navy approaches the island and prepares to issue a warning. Rosa and the group form a human chain indicating they wouldn't budge and the soldiers fire a few rounds around the platform hoping to get them scared. The group, however, doesn't move and the SEALs finally apprehend them and blow up the island using dynamite.
A bitter Rosa watches and Gabriella consoles him. While this might be the end of the famed Rose Island, the journey of Rosa and Gabriella had just begun. The movie sticks to the original events and the 120-minute runtime also sprinkles some humor and some love to make the film lighter and a lot more interesting. 'Rose Island' is the story of one man's defiance with logic to boot and a tale of love.
'Rose Island' is streaming on Netflix.
