Last updated on September 1, 2024
A film by Gianni Amelio
With: Alessandro Borghi, Gabriel Montesi, Federica Rosellini, Giovanni Scotti, Vince Vivenzio, Alberto Cracco, Luca Lazzareschi, Maria-Grazia Plos, Rita Bosello
These are the years of the First World War and Dr. Stefano Zorzi spends his days in the Exemption Clinic in a large city of Northern Italy, where he not only takes care of soldiers who arrive from the massacre of the front, but also he fights simulation and self-harm of those who hope to be dispensed, by sending them before the Military Court. If Stefano, in fact, does his utmost to heal soldiers and send them back to fight, Dr. Giulio Farradio makes them ill, or helps them to self-injure seriously enough to be exonerated. The two doctors, who went to university together and were great friends, they not only (secretly) challenge each other on a professional level, but also on the sentimental one: they are both linked to Anna, a courageous nurse with a strong character. But when the great ‘Spanish’ fever epidemic arrived in 1918, the time for love, politics and science ends up getting confused dangerously..
Our rate: *(*)
A rather intriguing subject, a rather radical approach, Amelio very quickly establishes a gloomy atmosphere, and moves his story forward deliberately slowly, remaining mysterious about the motivations of each of the characters, whether political or more visceral. Behind the somewhat forgotten historical description, behaviors, personal stakes, unspoken love affairs and backroom deals are revealed. The painted scenery doesn’t directly allude to our times, but it certainly provides an interesting reading grid for them, particularly as regards the question of patriotism and the relationship with others. The film reminds us throughout of the abominations of war, even beyond the battlefield, extending to society as a whole, and criticizes the behaviors that nip pacifism in the bud, the militaristic vision and its manipulation of soldiers (we think of Putin and the crises of Russian soldiers poorly trained, forcibly recruited, against their will, for a struggle that is not theirs), and the development of diseases in mass graves, echoing what is happening today in Gaza. All in all, a gloomy, unpleasant film, but one that at least embraces an ambitious subject.
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