Il Giardino Dei Finzi-Contini (1970)

Italy 94m, Colour
Director: Vittorio de Sica; Cast: Lino Capolicchio, Dominique Sanda, Helmut Berger, Fabio Testi, Romolo Valli

The Garden of the Finzi-Continis is a hauntingly beautiful and dreamlike tragedy about the rise of anti-semitism in Italy from 1938 to 1943 under Benito Mussolini. Playing tennis behind their walled garden, and blissfully disregarding what is going on around them, the Finzi-Contini’s are an aristocratic Italian-Jewish family that serve as a symbol for pre-war Europe. The tragic consequences of their inaction remains a cautionary tale that is unfortunately once again all too relevant (Klaus Ming September 2016).