During the pandemic, children keep being born, which is a a joyous event. At the same time, people, especially the elderly, die with no loved ones around, no closure, no goodbyes. The doctors and nurses worry constantly about having been careful enough with their PPE.

During the lockdown of 2020, cities were deserted. The urban landscape changed drastically and some strange things happened, too.

During the pandemic, there were those who couldn't do their shopping for one reason or another, so volunteers would help out. Some could pay for their groceries, but others couldn't. At the beginning of the video, we're in the ZEN, a housing project on the outskirts of Palermo. ZEN stands for Zona Espansione Nord (northern expansion zone). Towards the end of the segment, we're at Milan's Pio Albergo Trivulzio, a nursing home and hospital where many people died in the first wave of Covid-19.

Despite the restrictions brought on by Covid, people would still graduate from school, they'd get married, and they'd celebrate birthdays. But of course, they would have to get creative. Health workers in close contact with Covid patients would have to find a way to be affectionate with their loved ones without infecting them.

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.

Fulvio and Fabia take turns reading an extract from the book, Crimine infinito (Infinite Crime). The novel is based on the true story of a soccer player who gets involved in the 'Ndrangheta, the Calabrian organized crime syndicate.

We're at a police station, where the printer is acting up and a phone call comes in from a patrol car. We also hear what happens after the soccer game when the president of the Teramo Calcio comes to congratulate the team.

Inspector Barreca gets to where the Italo-Australian has been stopped and fiddles with something without being seen. In the locker room of the stadium, Del Vento enjoys his victory shower, a moment he always looks forward to. Then he sets out towards Calabria to visit some relatives.

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.