Naples '44

Norman Lewis was an officer in British intelligence. In 1944 he was posted to Naples. The city was then under Allied occupation. The man wrote what he saw in his diary. The diary was later published as a book. The film takes that text as its base. Benedict Cumberbatch reads it. The images come from newsreels of the period. Scenes from old films set in Naples are added to them. Footage shot in the city today comes in between. The account shows what the war did to ordinary life. Hunger, the black market and ruin sit side by side. The city is wounded like a soldier. The film mixes fiction and documentary together. Benedict Cumberbatch reads the text of the eighty five minute documentary. It is an Italian production Francesco Patierno finished in 2016.