For what was perhaps their most acclaimed film, the Taviani brothers turned for inspiration to their country’s annual Night of San Lorenzo (or, Feast of St. Lawrence); each August 10th, so the legend goes, dreams can become reality as the meteor showers send stars falling. That late summer’s evening is charged up with real-world urgency for a group of Tuscan villagers in 1944, as they hope to outlast the Nazis in time for liberation by the Allies.

In Italian with English Subtitles