Campo di Battaglia

  • Year
    2024
  • Status
    Distributed
  • Type
    Feature film
  • Distribution/Festival

    In competition at the 81st Venice International Film Festival on August 31st, 2024.

    In cinemas from September 5th, 2024.

At the end of World War I, two medical officers, who are also childhood friends, work at the same military hospital, where the most seriously wounded arrive from the front every day. Many of them, however, have self-inflicted wounds; they are simulators, who will do anything not to return to the battlefield.

Stefano, from an upper-class family, with a father who dreams for him a future in politics, is obsessed with these self-sacrificers. In addition to being a doctor, he regards himself like a cop, in his own way.

Giulio, seemingly more understanding and tolerant, is uncomfortable with the sight of blood, is more inclined toward research, and would have liked to become a biologist.

Anna, a mutual friend since their college days, has to deal with the fact that she is a woman: in those days, without an influential family, it was difficult to get a medical degree. But she faces hard work with grit and is a Red Cross volunteer.

Meanwhile, something strange happens among the sick: many get mysteriously worse. Perhaps there is someone purposely causing complications to their wounds so that the soldiers will be sent home, even crippled, even maimed, as long as they do not return to battle. There is a saboteur inside the hospital, which Anna is the first to suspect. But on the war front, just toward the end of the conflict, an infection spreads and affects more than enemy weapons. And it soon infects the civilian population as well.