How did Italians spend Easter in 2020? Certain traditions were able to be maintained, but it wasn't easy!

On April 25th, Italians celebrate being liberated from the Nazis. It's customary for Italians to gather in piazzas all over the country to celebrate, but in 2020, everyone was in lockdown. The famous song Bella ciao provides the soundtrack for this segment, as people talk about their experiences, as well as what they are looking forward to when the worst of the pandemic is over.

We come to the end of this story of the lockdown in Italy, told through amateur videos, all gathered and coordinated by Gabriele Salvatores.

This documentary is about 2 brothers — the Taviani brothers — who are famous for having made many award-winning Italian movies. The short clips from their films will surely entice us to see the complete movies in the original Italian. Perhaps the most famous one is La Notte di San Lorenzo from 1982, whose English language release had the title: The Night of the Shooting Stars.

The Taviani brothers lived through the war, so they had a good feel for the terror people felt. But as kids they were also very much affected by the movies offered at the time.

The Taviani brothers talk about how, as young movie lovers, they would grab their bikes and go to whatever movie theater in the area was showing their favorite films. Then they had to go to the big city, Rome, to pitch their first documentary. They learned a valuable lesson.

San Miniato is where the Taviani brothers were born, but it was also the birthplace of their careers in filmmaking. Their first was a documentary and right away they had some problems with censorship.

Actor Giulio Brogi talks about how his role in The Subversives mirrored his character at the time. The Taviani brothers describe how they found another actor in that film, young Lucio Dalla, the famous (and now deceased) singer-songwriter.

In nineteen sixty-nine they made a different kind of film, Under the Sign of Scorpio, and needed a special place to film it in. The whole cast, together with the directors, felt a particular sense of community both during and after the filming.

The Taviani brothers talk about how their movie Under the Sign of Scorpio was received at the Venice film festival, and about their location scouting for the film.

The directors talk about the important role the sea played in their films. Another element that played an important part was color, used to express feelings and situations.

The Taviani brothers talk about how color and images can be more important than the story itself. There are clips from interviews with them when they were much younger, and the director of photography contributes some thoughts, as well. The movie featured in this segment is Good Morning, Babylon from 1987.

This segment explains the title of the movie, Saint Michael Had a Rooster. The Taviani brothers, as well as the lead actor, talk about some aspects of the story, and Nanni Moretti comments on the camera technique.

The political vision of the Taviani brothers comes through in their movies, especially Allonsanfàn. The choices they made in the story were simply a reflection of their thinking at the time, not because the movies themselves were affiliated with a particular political party.

Although their films weren't overtly political, the Taviani brothers saw and heard what was "in the air" in Italy, and somehow captured some the essence of it, without even being aware of it.