Director Giorgio Diritti gorgeously depicts what life was like for this family, who has not only been taken advantaged of by the land’s fascist master, but finds themselves ensnared between the Nazis and the armed rebels who are hiding in the outskirts of their village.
The film reveals itself in two parts. The first part focuses on the day-to-day life of a family who just wants to keep on living their “simple” ways amongst a world at war. It shows how they are effected by what is going on around them in a very non-hands-on sort of way. As long as it’s not physically at their front door than life can go on as is.
The second part of the film shows how the family is affected when they are forced to face those involved in the war up close. For those of you who are already familiar with the massacre that took place in 1944 on the slopes of Monte Sole, Italy, known as “the Slaughter of Marzabotto”, the films climax will come as no surprise.
In conclusion, I’m not sure if the film was a fitting tribute to those victims of this horrifying moment in history – after all, I wasn’t even to be born for another 33 years after all this went down – or whether it was a glorification of such events. What I do know is that when I left the theatre I left with an overwhelming sense of foreboding. And no, it had nothing to do with the fact that I was heading home to a gruesome tower of dishes made entirely out of procrastination.
