«This film represents for me a return to history, which has always been one of the two strands of my cinema together with current events. In addition to the historical aspect itself, I was struck by the place where the events take place. In a hotel, a few days after September 8, Jews and the SS meet together, all awaiting orders. It is a story that also becomes an apologue on the human condition “
Carlo Lizzani
Based on real events, told in a book by Marco Nozza. Lake Maggiore, September 1943. A group of sixteen Italian Jews from Greece are guests of the Hotel Meina owned by Giorgio Benar, a Jew with a Turkish passport (ie citizen of a neutral country). Following September 8, the day of the armistice between Italy and the Allies, an SS unit led by Commander Krassler arrives in Meina. Two young men, Noa Benar and Julien Fendez, are torn from their love by the brutal invasion of the Nazi troop. The Jews are imprisoned in the hotel and a week of waiting, terror and hope begins. It is a strange coexistence between Jews, non-Jewish guests of the hotel and SS. There is discussion about the possibilities of escape. The Germans themselves are awaiting orders. Perhaps the end of the war is approaching for them too. But then the escalation towards the massacre begins. The SS pick up the Jews in small groups and translate them outside the hotel for questioning – so they say – at the Command of the nearby town of Baveno. They actually slaughter them and then throw them into the lake. The attempt to save them by an anti-Nazi German connected to a network that operates between Switzerland and Italy was also in vain. The last to be mowed down by Nazi bullets are Julien Fendez, his two brothers and his grandfather. Noa manages to escape with her father, mother and little brother to Switzerland, after all hope of saving them is in vain.
Source
Genre: historical – drama
Cast
Majlinda Agaj: Irma Moneri
Eugenio Allegri: Vittorio Pomas
Marta Bifano: Camy Benar
Veronica Bruni: Sig.ra Ariana
Ursula Buschhorn: Cora Bern
Butz Ulrich Buse: Tepper
Silvia Cohen: Liliana Fendez
Diana Collepiccolo: Ester Moneri
Simone Colombari: Pierre Fendez
Federico Costantini: Julien Fendez
Luis Bacalov soundtrack
