Like an intimate family dinner with strangers, there's a lot going on here but none of it concerns you. Set in Italy during the period when Mussolini rose to power in WWII, this is the 'love story' between a Jewish woman from the upper class and her friend from the Jewish middle class. Because there are a lot of political references and this is about a garden it's probably an extended metaphor but it's not interesting enough to make me want to delve any deeper into it than that.

Quite dull, and felt lacking in any sense of danger or dramatic stakes. I've loved some of de Sica's past work, but this one fell super flat.

"we weren't the first to be persecuted... but we all kept quiet as long as it wasn't our turn."

The original title of the film is Il giardino dei Finzi Contini.