Red Land (Rosso Istria)

The movie is visually well-made, albeit the storytelling lies on the "tell, don't show" side.

This movie is the first one I know of which talks about the foibe massacres, and it should be appreciated for talking about this subject.

The way the story is told is biased, as if Mussolini's Pola speech, Sisak, or Jasenovac, and the fascist cruelties like the blinding of Ruza Petrovic never existed. The fascist occupation is shown as a peaceful and bloodless field trip; only the Fascist Italianization is shown in the movie, and consequently the killing of fascists and Italians has a flavor of a cruel, unprovoked aggression. It was cruel, for sure, but unprovoked? Not so sure about it.

To be clear, it is completely legit to condemn the crimes of a totalitarism, be it the fascist regime or Tito's communist regime. What I find unjust is to show the reaction of an oppressed population, while deliberately omitting the action (the action being mass murders, deportations and war crimes against civilians) that lead to the reaction, and even depicting those responsible of said action as cool, disciplinate, peaceful guys.

But, as I said, this is the first movie about this subject, and it should be appreciated for this.

Despite its revisionist nature, it is an improvement on the even more biased TV series "Il cuore nel pozzo" which preceded it on the same subject.

If the trend will be the same, hopefully, the voice of historians will cover the omissions of the neo-fascist fanbase, and less biased movies may come in the future.

The massacre of italian defenseless civilians perpetrated by Yugoslav partisans in Istria during the last years of WWII and immediately thereafter is a proven historical fact. Unfortunately, the political climate in Italy after the war caused a widespread removal of any mention to all the atrocities that weren't accomplished by fascists. This aberration survives still, to the point that it influenced negatively the distribution of this movie in the italian theaters, due to the fear that extremists might cause disorders and damages. Those who negate the Istrian atrocities are on a par with those who negate the "Shoah" and shouldn't be allowed to do so in a public context in any civilized country. That said, the movie does not contain any actual political propaganda, neither in favor of Fascism, nor against Communism: it shows the story of a bunch of men and women in those tragic times. From an artistic point of view I'd say that the movie is very good, even if, IMHO, the aim at aesthetic elegance risks diluting, at times, the dramatic tension.

The only movie telling the real story about the tragical events happened in Istria at the end of the second world war. The peaceful, cultured Italian population of Istria is represented here by a young girl, Norma Cossetto, who was killed and raped by the communists. The holy liberation from the fascism was not like in other Italian territories. Here innocent civils such as womens, priests, farmers, old people were killed and thrown in deep cavities of the ground called 'foibe*just because Italians. At the end of the war more than 300.000 Italian inhabitants of Istria decided to left their land going over the world to search for freedom and newer life. The young director and also actor shows great capabilities. A remarkable performance of the immense Italian actor Franco Nero while in front of the chief of communists.

Strong movie based on historical facts that took too long to come out and be given the right weight in the history of those times. Highly recommended.

Wonderful movie.

The tragic & captivating recount of the occupation and ethnic cleansing of the Italian inhabitants living in the Istrian Peninsula at the end of WW2 by the Yugoslav Partisans.

Enjoyed and recommend watching.