Be Sick... It's Free (Il medico della mutua)

Il medico della mutua (Be Sick... It's Free) is a 1968 Italian comedy directed by Luigi Zampa and counted among the classics of the commedia all'italiana tradition. Starring Alberto Sordi, it is adapted from Giuseppe D'Agata's novel of the same name. The "mutua" of the title means Italy's health insurance funds, the system the film targets. It runs about 99 minutes; French title: Le Gynéco de la mutuelle.

Sordi plays Guido Tersilli, a young, ambitious doctor determined to rise quickly in his profession and in society. Tersilli learns to turn the gaps in the insurance system to his own advantage: he inflates his patient lists, writes unnecessary treatments and milks the bureaucracy until he is rich enough to open his own clinic. The film is a sharp satire of the healthcare system and the opportunism it breeds. The cast also includes Ida Galli, Bice Valori, Sara Franchetti and Leopoldo Trieste.

Sergio Amidei, Alberto Sordi and Luigi Zampa wrote the screenplay together. In 2008 the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage placed the film on its list of 100 Italian films to be saved, works said to have changed the country's collective memory from 1942 to 1978. A sequel followed, and in pre-revolution Iran it played dubbed in cinemas.