Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at 1982 Cannes Film Festival. Set during the summer of 1944 in a small Tuscan town caught between the threat of destruction by the retreating German forces and the advancing American army, this is a bedtime story told by a mother to her child. A recollection of her experience during the war which takes on the quality of fairytale as seen through the eyes of a six year old. In it, the Tavianis create some of their most lyrical and poetic cinema.