In Love and War

The film begins in 1943 with Eric Newby, a young and enthusiastic British Sub Lieutenant in the Special Boat Section, participating in a reconnaissance mission on the Italian coast that goes awry due to poor intelligence. Eric and his fellow commandos are captured and sent to a POW camp in a converted 16th-century villa in Tuscany. There, he meets the senior officer, Lieutenant Colonel John Melville, and observes the local women from a distance, including a young woman named Wanda. When Italy signs an armistice with the Allies, the Italian guards abandon the prison, warning the British that German Panzer divisions are approaching. Eric escapes but severely injures his ankle, forcing him to seek refuge with a local anti-fascist caretaker named Merily while his comrades head for the Alps. A local doctor brings Wanda to Merily's house to act as a translator for Eric. Wanda begins teaching Eric Italian, emphasizing that he must lose his 'English strut' and learn to walk and speak like a local to survive. As they spend time together, they fall deeply in love, despite the constant threat of the Blackshirts (Italian Fascists) and the German occupation. Wanda's father, a schoolteacher who refuses to bow to Fascist ideology, is eventually arrested, adding to the stakes. Eric is moved to a remote mountain farm owned by Vincenzo and Rosa, where he lives in a hidden cave-like hut and works the fields to blend in. The tension peaks when Maurizio, a local Blackshirt and former student of Wanda's father, becomes suspicious of the family's activities. During a village celebration, German soldiers raid the area looking for escaped prisoners. Wanda warns Eric that he has been denounced. Realizing that his presence puts Wanda and the villagers in mortal danger of execution, Eric chooses to surrender himself to the Germans to save his protectors. He is taken back into custody as a prisoner of war. After the war ends in 1944, Eric is repatriated to England but quickly returns to Italy to find Wanda. He discovers her in the town piazza, and the two reunite, finally able to be together in a time of peace.