The poignant Netflix series lands on our screens today – but is it based on true events?
Italian period drama The Law According to Lidia Poët lands on Netflix today (15th February) and it’s set to be a powerful six-parter about Italy’s first female lawyer.
It features rising Italian star Matilda De Angelis, who starred alongside Nicole Kidman and Hugh Grant in The Undoing as Elena Alves. Although many will recognise her for her complicated (and positively scandalous) role in the HBO series, she leads The Law According to Lidia Poët as the titular character.
But is the tale of law in Italy based on true events? Read on to find out everything you need to know about the Netflix series and the story it’s based on.
Is The Law According to Lidia Poët based on a true story?
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It most certainly is.
The Netflix series seeks to reconstruct the true story of the Italian woman who, in late 19th century Turin, fought a legal battle to be allowed to practice as a lawyer after she was forbidden to do so by a court order.
According to the synopsis: “Penniless but full of pride, Lidia finds a job at her brother Enrico’s law firm where she prepares an appeal that will overturn the court’s ruling. She thus became Italy’s first female lawyer.”
In real life, Poët’s disbarring put the wheels in motion for a movement to allow women to practice law and hold public office in Italy.
Although she received her law degree in 1881, attended “forensic practice”, assisted at tribunal sessions, and underwent multiple exams for the Order of Advocates of Turin, she was told that the inscription of her name on the roll of advocates “did not please” the office of the attorney general.
The office of the attorney general then filed a complaint with the Court of Appeal of Turin. Despite multiple arguments against the complaint, as well as reminders of other women being allowed to be advocates in other countries, the court found Poët’s inscription to be illegal. The attorney general argued that women were forbidden by law and public policy.
There was obviously widespread public outcry, with an overwhelming majority of 25 Italian newspapers supporting Poët and women’s public roles in general.
For the rest of her life, Poët was active in the international women’s movement and in 1919, Italy ruled that women were allowed to hold certain public offices. This meant that a year later in 1920, aged 65, Poët was inscribed in the role of advocate in Turin, thus making her Italy’s first female lawyer.
The Netflix series has been described as a “light procedural drama” where we’ll follow De Angelis’s Poët as she takes on criminal cases of her own. As per the synopsis: “Lidia assists criminal suspects by searching for the truth behind outward appearances and preconceptions.
“Lidia’s brother-in-law, Jacopo, a mysterious journalist, passes her information and introduces her to the hidden worlds that lurk beneath a flamboyant Turin.”
The Law According to Lidia Poët is streaming now on Netflix. Sign up for Netflix from £6.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream.
Check out more of our Drama coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to see what’s on tonight.
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