On a northern Italian farm, Batistì and his wife decide to send their son Minec to school, sacrificing his help in the fields but hoping to break the cycle of poverty in the family. But when Minec’s shoe breaks while walking for miles, Batisti puts the family’s future at risk to replace the...
The life of St. Francis of Assisi (1181-1226) as related by followers who gather after his death to tell stories so that Leone can record them: a privileged and virile youth, a prisoner of war, an heir who turns away from his father and gives all to the poor, a beggar for others, and an inspiration...
Five short stories with contemporary settings. In New York, people are indifferent to derelicts sleeping on sidewalks, to a woman's assault in front of an apartment building, and to a couple injured in a car crash. A man, stripped of his identity, dies in bed with actors expressing his agony. A...
Giordano is a young man from Milan who accepts a ride from a trio of Americans (an "open" couple and a homosexual) sightseeing in Italy. The husband is an older and worldly professor of archaeology while his wife is interested in exploring living things. The young hitchhiker is seduced by the...
A beautiful smiling guy's walking on the streets of a city, bringing with him a large paper poppy. The boy is the goodness and innocence of youth, which is soon cut short by human wickedness.
Three friends meeting after the absence of one of them for 15 years out of the country. This sudden gathering give them the opportunity to examine their life, to criticize one another on their achievements.
Salome is the daughter of the second wife of King Herod. The King is infatuated with her and, after she fails to seduce the prophet John The Baptist, she dances for the King in order to ask for his execution.
An enterprising reporter takes along four willing adventurers to interview and photograph a young Sardinian criminal in hiding. Under intermittent gunfire, they make their way to the mountain hideout of the bandit. After a leisurely conversation and photo session, the encampment comes under fire...
A thinly-disguised biography of African leader Patrice Lumumba, here called Lalubi. Lalubi, a Christ-like leader determined to save his people, by passive resistance, from the dictatorial regime propped up by European colonialists, is imprisoned and tortured, along with a thief who comes to a...
Martina lives in the Rome's zoo, because her father is the guardian. She becomes friend with a young Slavic escaped from a gypsy camp. When the police arrives searching for the kid, they run away riding an elephant!
Two members of the fascist legion GOD WANTS IT, Michele and Luigi, both from Sicily, met in Malaga and became friends in the course of the 1936-39 counter revolution. Based upon the short story by Leonardo Sciascia.
Laura, a woman of a certain age with full grown children who, by all indications should be leading a great life, but actually, she appears to have none. She comes from a wealthy family. Laura has made herself a lawyer with a nice practice. Her placid existence comes to an abrupt stop when a young...
