Night of the Shooting Stars - La notte di San Lorenzo

The film that captivated more than 8,000 people on an unforgettable evening in Locarno's Piazza Grande with its cinematic magic and message of peace. In the summer of 1944, a group of residents from their home village of San Miniato in Tuscany secretly sneaked out to meet the American liberators. According to instructions, those who remain behind seek shelter in the church and fall victim to a retaliatory strike by the Germans.

The refugees live through all stages of hope and despair along the way in the Tuscan landscape and are confronted with Italian fascists in a legendary sequence. La notte di San Lorenzo is in itself a historical film in the sense that it tells of a bygone era. Through the fairytale-like-mythical and melodramatic exaggerations, the Tavianis make the story stand out from the merely historical and allow the film through the wonderful figure of the girl to acquire universal expressiveness. This is a peace film of elementary sensuality and power.