Tea with Mussolini (1999)

A different story and a different perspective of World War II

In 1935, Italy is under the grip of Fascism. A group of American and English ladies move to Florence, enchanted by art and the beauty of Tuscany, and one of them adopts Luca, a young boy who is sent to study in Austria on the eve of WWII. Arriving back in his hometown, he finds everything has changed: the country is at war and his mother and the other ladies have been imprisoned by the Fascist regime. The story concentrates on interpersonal relations in this complex contest, but one thing that unites the characters is a love for art. Angry at the Fascist regime (but not at Italy), the women fight to preserve the integrity of the towers of San Gimignano from a German attack and heroically defend the monument.