Italiano brava gente
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
Giuseppe De Santis
Arthur Kennedy
Peter Falk
Tatyana Samoylova
Raffaele Pisu
Zhanna Prokhorenko
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
In 1942, an Italian squadron traveling by train through the Ukraine to the eastern front observes the harsh treatment suffered by Russian captives at the hands of German soldiers. An Italian offers a Russian a piece of bread, thus precipitating a fight between the Germans and Italians. Later, when a Russian town is overtaken, the Italians and Germans are unable to prevent saboteurs from destroying several buildings. The saboteurs, including a girl named Katya, are captured, and the Germans order them shot; but the Italian firing squad allows Katya to escape. Bazzocchi, a young Italian soldier, follows and tries to console the frightened girl, only to be shot down by planes. Fascist Major Ferri joins the troop, along with a compassionate Italian physician who is begged by the surrendering Russian partisans to save their wounded leader. Leaving behind a hostage, the partisans take the doctor to their camp. Although he saves the leader's life, the doctor is shot by the Germans while returning to his outfit; consequently, the hostage is also executed. Later, the Russians push back the Italians and take Ferri prisoner. During the general retreat, the Germans ride while the Italians march on foot. Ferri kills one of the Italian drivers and attempts to take over the truck, but other Italians beat him to death. A weary Italian soldier, Gabrielli, continues on alone. He comes across the frozen body of Sonya, a Russian girl whom he had met earlier, and falls to the ground to begin digging his own grave.
Director
Giuseppe De Santis
Cast
Arthur Kennedy
Peter Falk
Tatyana Samoylova
Raffaele Pisu
Zhanna Prokhorenko
Andrea Checchi
Riccardo Cucciolla
Nino Vingelli
Lev Prygunov
Grigoriy Mikhaylov
Gino Pernice
Valeriy Somov
Boris Kozhukhov
Vincenzo Polizzi
S. Lukyanov
Yuriy Nazarov
Otar Koberidze
I. Paramonov
E. Knausmyuller
Ya. Yanakiyev
A. Sakhnovskiy
E. Lezhdey
D. Stolyarskaya
L. Masokha
V. Golovnenko
N. Nikitina
L. Ulyanenko
V. Berezko
Crew
I. Bits
Ennio De Concini
Ennio De Concini
Massimo De Rita
Giuseppe De Santis
Giuseppe De Santis
Augusto Frassineti
Giandomenico Giagni
Romolo Girolami
V. Khovanskaya
V. Lagutin
Joseph E. Levine
Ermanno Manco
I. Paramonov
A. Rudachenko
Lionello Santi
Antonio Secchi
Sergey Smirnov
Boris Travkin
Armando Trovajoli
Dmitriy Vasilyev
David Vinitskiy
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
Filmed on location in the Ukraine and on the banks of the Don River. Opened in Rome in October 1964 as Italiani brava gente; running time: 150 min. Released in the U.S.S.R. in 1965 in two parts as Oni shli na Vostok.
