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THE COLONY

VACANZE DI GUERRA

By Alessandro ROSSETTO

GRAFFITI DOC SRL - as PROD

Documentary - Completed 2010

The long summer of 12,000 Italian children, who in 1940 went for a holiday at the seaside and, due to the war, were trapped for seven years at summer camps.

- Year of production
- 2010
- Genres
- Documentary
- Countries
- ITALY
- Languages
- ITALIAN
- Duration
- 52 mn
- Director(s)
- Alessandro ROSSETTO
- Writer(s)
- Alessandro ROSSETTO
- Producer(s)
- Enrica CAPRA (GraffitiDoc)
- Synopsis
- June 1, 1940. The German troops are routing the French in Paris. At the same time, six large Italian Navy ships leave Libya, then one of the Italian colonies. They are head toward a port in the northern Adriatic Sea.
  On board there are no soldiers, just children, more than 12,000 children, all between the ages of four and twelve. Their parents say goodbye to them from the quay of the port. The children are invited to spend one month of summer holidays in the seaside camps near Rimini.
  A few days later, on June 10th, Italy enters the war at the side of Hitler’s Germany.
  The ships are needed for the war, and the Mediterranean is under the control of the English Navy. The children’s return is postponed month after month. A type of organised kidnapping begins for them, which will keep them far from their families for more than seven years.
  What was hidden beneath such a massive and untimely departure? And how did this event affect those who experienced it?
  In the background, a disturbing question is slowly raised: how far can cynicism and manipulation go in politics?
- Partners & financing
- Istituto Luce, RAI
- Beginning of shooting
- Mar 01, 2010