Synopsis

Antonio is nineteen years old, and even though it's 1943, the war has begun to take a turn for the worse, and the mood in the streets is changing, Florence appears to his young eyes as a beautiful city where he can dream of the future, imagining his life ahead of him. But it only takes a moment to change the course of things: a small wave of rebellion against a fascist leader—more a youthful folly than a calculated gesture—and his fate is sealed. Antonio is sent to the front, to join the Navy, ahead of his conscript class. And it is in Venice, at the Arsenal, that he is surprised on September 8th, when yesterday's allies suddenly become today's enemies. Amid soldiers arriving from all over Italy, Antonio and his companions wait in vain for directions that never come. The State has abandoned them. From there, for all of them, begins a journey to the edge of a precipice into which they will be forced to throw themselves, experiencing the senseless horror of deportation and imprisonment. Only Antonio's strength and stubborn attachment to life will give his story an unexpected turn, giving us a story that can move and amaze even more than seventy years later.