Yesterday Margaret and I watched the movie Mediterraneo. It is an Italian movie released in 1991 about a tiny, fictional incident during World War II. A squad of 8 misfit Italian soldiers is sent to garrison a Greek island. Their arrival is strange. There are no people in the single island village, or in the surrounding mountains. For the movie the absence of villagers is convenient. It allows the viewers to become familiar with the Italian soldiers, whose radio is broken so they can not communicate with the outside world.
The lieutenant in charge is a peace-time school teacher, quiet and patient. The sergeant is a blustering veteran of Italy's campaigns in Spain and North Africa. The other men each have their own unique characters, including the guy in charge of the squad's donkey who has more affection for his donkey than for the other men. There are two brothers terrified of the water, one married man desperate to return to his family, and the lieutenant's orderly who will be the soldier most transformed by this small island.
It turns out the island is not uninhabited. Having experienced a brief German occupation that took away their young men, the villagers naturally hid from this new intrusion. Well, not so naturally since it would not have been possible to disappear so completely. But what the heck, it works in the movie and their magical reappearance matches the tone of the movie. Convinced that the Italians are no threat, the natives repopulate the village in a single morning and open their hearts to the isolated garrison. The soldiers partake in village soccer games and dances. The war is largely forgotten.
The lieutenant finds time to repaint the faded frescoes in the village church using his own men as models for the holy figures on the walls. The soldier in charge of the donkey finds love with one of the village women, and the orderly finds love with the local prostitute. The brothers terrified of water suddenly learn to swim, with help from a beautiful shepherdess. While the other Italian soldiers are willing to wait out the war, the married soldier is repeatedly trying to escape back to Italy and his family.
And so it goes. Three years pass before the villagers and soldiers learn that the American is in the war, Italy has surrendered, and the war now rages in Italy itself. Fantastic news, but of no use to the islanders or soldiers who now live in this comfortable world, from which they can not communicate or escape. And from which they may not even want to escape. There are several references to Homer in the movie and the stay on the island suggests the time spent by Odysseus's crew at the land of the lotus eaters, where they found contentment and no reason to continue their homeward voyage.
Unfortunately, many good things end. The war ends, and the British navy shows up to evacuate the garrison and return the young men taken by the Germans so many years ago. The Italian soldiers are repatriated to Italy except for two who have disappeared. The returning Greek men pass the Italians on the village docks and you can see in a few seconds the hate they feel for the men who took their places.
Time passes. Many years later the lieutenant, now an old man, returns to the island where he reunites with two of his old comrades. One who never left, and one who returned earlier when he found life in Italy no better than it was before the war. If appears that these three men at least will live out their lives in the land of the lotus eaters.
Mediterraneo is not an exciting movie. But it is perfect in delivering what it wants to accomplish.
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