To Live in Peace

Peasants in Umbria are hiding an American prisoner in their house. One night the man, drunk, comes across a German soldier who is also drunk. Both believe the war is over and they embrace each other. But it is not over, and before long the guns speak again. Uncle Tigna, who was hiding the prisoner and two of his companions, pays for it with his life. The film sets comedy and mourning inside the same scene; the distance between the moment of laughter and the moment of death is very short. That it was shot in 1947, right after the war, sets the tone of the account as well. Aldo Fabrizi, Gar Moore and John Kitzmiller appear in Luigi Zampa’s eighty seven minute Italian film, completed in 1947.