Angular passing scope to ng-include

I have a controller that I wrote that I use in multiple places in my app with ng-include and ng-repeat, like this:

<div
  ng-repeat="item in items"
  ng-include="'item.html'"
  ng-controller="ItemController"
></div>

In the controller/template, I expect the item value to exist, and the whole thing is built around this idea. Now, though, I need to use the controller in a slightly different way, without the ng-repeat, but still need to be able to pass in an item. I saw ng-init and thought it could do what I needed, like this:

<div
  ng-init="item = leftItem"
  ng-include="'item.html'"
  ng-controller="ItemController"
></div>
<div
  ng-init="item = rightItem"
  ng-include="'item.html'"
  ng-controller="ItemController"
></div>

But that does not seem to be working. Anyone have any ideas how I can pass in a variable for scope in a singular instance like this?

Edit: The controller above this is loading in the leftItem and rightItem values, something like this:

.controller('MainController', function($scope, ItemModel) {
    ItemModel.loadItems()
        .then(function(items) {
            $scope.$apply(function() {
                $scope.leftItem = items.left;
                $scope.rightItem = items.right;
            });
        });
});

I ended up rewriting it into a directive and binding the needed value in the scope with

scope: {
    item: '='
}