The Night of the Shooting Stars

The summer of 1944, a town in Tuscany. The Germans are withdrawing and announce that they will blow up the centre of the town as they go. They tell the people to gather in the cathedral, where they will be safe. Some of the townspeople do not believe it. A group sets out at night, hoping to move across country and find the American troops. The journey lasts days. In the wheat fields they meet fascist militia and a fight breaks out. The narrator was six that night and tells the story years later to her own daughter. Paolo and Vittorio Taviani write and direct. Omero Antonutti and Margarita Lozano are in the cast. It is an Italian production. The film won the grand prize of the jury at the Cannes Film Festival. The narrative rests on the directors' childhood memories; what happened in a cathedral at San Miniato in 1944 is its starting point. Responsibility for that event was argued over for a long time; later research reached different conclusions about the source of the explosion, and the film offers its own reading. The narrative is built as a child's remembering; some scenes are openly exaggerated and the film does not hide it. The fight in the wheat field is its most cited section. The narrative sets the war not between two sides but among the people of one town. Its limit is form; the narrative proceeds in pieces and there are many characters. Who it is for: viewers who like Italian cinema and wartime narrative. Who it is not for: the structure is scattered, the characters crowded, and the violence hard.