In 1938, widowed teacher Ida Ramundo lives with her teenage son Nino in the San Lorenzo neighborhood of Rome. That year, Benito Mussolini gives a speech condemning Judaism as the enemy of Italian fascism. Ida, whose mother was Jewish, is frightened by this. In 1940, a young German soldier follows Ida home and rapes her, and she later discovers that she is pregnant. While Nino is away at an Avanguardia Giovanile Fascista camp, Ida gives birth to her second child, a blue-eyed son named Giuseppe, nicknamed "Useppe".
2
"Episode 2"
47 min
8 January 2024 (2024-01-08)
When Nino returns from camp, he is immediately enamored with his little brother. However, radicalized by his fascist beliefs, he later drops out of high school and abandons his family to join the Italian military in 1943. That July, San Lorenzo is bombed, and Ida and Useppe flee to Pietralata.
3
"Episode 3"
55 min
15 January 2024 (2024-01-15)
In hiding, Ida and Useppe meet Giuseppe "Eppetondo" Cucchiarelli, a communist marble worker; the noisy Mille family; and Carlo Vivaldi, a mysterious student. Nino, now a partisan, recruits Eppetondo and Carlo into the Italian resistance against German occupation. At the Tiburtina station, Ida is shocked to see a train packed with Jews from the ghetto.
4
"Episode 4"
53 min
15 January 2024 (2024-01-15)
Nino confesses to Useppe that he found the love of his life, a girl from the countryside named Mariolina. As the German soldiers continue to target partisans, the Mille family leaves the shelter for Naples. Eppetondo is captured by the Nazis and tortured, but does not reveal the refuge, causing the Nazis to execute him.
5
"Episode 5"
58 min
22 January 2024 (2024-01-22)
6
"Episode 6"
51 min
22 January 2024 (2024-01-22)
7
"Episode 7"
55 min
23 January 2024 (2024-01-23)
8
"Episode 8"
59 min
23 January 2024 (2024-01-23)
Production
Principal photography began in June 2022.[2] The series was largely shot in Rome.[3] Filming also briefly took place in Naples and Anagni.[4][5]
Release
The first two episodes of the series premiered at the Rome Film Festival on 20 October 2023.[6] The first two episodes aired on Rai 1 two months later, on 8 January 2024, and were watched by 4.5 million viewers.[7]
Reception
Mattia Carzaniga of Rolling Stone Italia commended the series, particularly the performance of Jasmine Trinca, which he referred to as "perhaps her most beautiful and certainly most passionate."[8]