Ten Italians for one German
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Ten Italians for one German |
| Original title | Dieci italiani per un tedesco |
| Country of production | Italy |
| original language | Italian |
| Publishing year | 1962 |
| length | 95 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Filippo Walter Ratti |
| script |
Luigi Angelo Filippo Walter Ratti |
| production | Vincenzo Petti |
| music | Armando Trovajoli |
| camera | Aldo Greci |
| cut | Nella Nannuzzi |
| occupation | |
| |
Ten Italians for a German is a film by Filippo Walter Ratti from 1962. It is based on the massacre in the Ardeatine Caves during World War II .
action
The film begins with a close-up of soldiers' boots in lockstep. A company of German soldiers moves through the Via Rasella in Rome. A partisan detonates a bomb hidden in a cart on the roadside. The pavement is full of corpses after the explosion.
After a raid by the Germans, all male residents of the street have to stand against the wall with their hands raised. It is night, the scenery is illuminated by ghostly flickering headlights. The German High Command is discussing how to proceed with the prisoners. Kappler , the Obersturmbannführer SS, cannot get his way with his suggestion of the immediate liquidation of the prisoners. The men are being transported away in a truck after machine guns have meanwhile been aimed at them.
On the same night Ferroni, a worker who had organized two kilos of potatoes with a friend, was arrested by a German patrol in front of his wife and son for exceeding the curfew in front of his house. Since his son wants to help him, he too is arrested.
By order of the Führer, the number of Italians to be killed is set at 320 men - ten Italians for one German. Kappler orders the police chief Caruso to compile a list with the names of the selected convicts.
Obersturmführer Weiss has a secret sympathy for Professor Marcello Rossi, one of the men arrested in the raid, whose book on the responsibility of the individual soldier in the war he secretly read in French. However, Rossi lets him flash off coolly.
Ferroni and his son are taken to the Regina Coeli prison in Rome . They come to Sergio's cell, who is spending his last night there. The next day he is supposed to be released and then wants to marry his fiancée Mariella. Meanwhile, the soldiers transport the first convicts away. All life longs and all Jews were selected.
Alfonso di San Severino learns that his son, with whom he has no close relationship, was captured by the Germans as a partisan and is also on the list of Italians to be killed. He tries to save his son through his relationships in the highest circles, but only manages to be able to speak to him for ten minutes in prison. There he is reconciled with his son.
Sergio was brought back to the cell at the last moment before his release. Mariella tries everything to save him, but in vain. More and more prisoners are selected. Ferroni, his son and Sergio also have to leave their cell.
Assunta Ferroni is sent to prison to bring her husband and son something to eat. She gets a farewell letter from them. Desperate, she collapses.
The convicts are taken to an abandoned area outside Rome in trucks. Here in the Ardeatine Caves the story ends in a savage slaughter of the condemned. Ferroni carries his impotent son full of dignity to their death on their own hands. Obersturmführer Weiss is overwhelmed by his scruples and wants to save at least a few convicts. He is shot by Obersturmführer Schwartz, Kappler's assistant.
Reviews
“'Ten Italians for a German' describes the chronicle of this war crime with great forcefulness. The inhumanity of the act of retaliation is made palpable on the basis of a series of fictitious individual fates. "
"Despite the seriousness of the implementation of the theme and the successful selection of the actors, the film does not go beyond a modest level in the retelling of the tragic events."
Web links
- Ten Italians for a German in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Ten Italians for a German on film.at