2005 Great  Independent Film Festival

Anna und der Soldat (Anna & The Soldier)

Category: Narrative Short 10 mins : 07 secs
Director: Soeren Hueper & Christian Prettin

Between 1943 and the end of World War II in 1945 Italy was occupied by troops of Nazi-Germany. It was a time of cruelty and inhumanity for the Italian people in their own country... Italy in 1950. The 18-year old Italian girl Anna is haunted by her past. Six years ago she lost her whole family in a massacre by the German Wehrmacht. Now she is living a hard and lonely life in her small village at the mountainous Italian eastern coast. Again and again she is drawing her horrific memories. The Citizens of her little hometown had to dig their own graves before they were shot by the Germans... Suddenly one of the soldiers, who can not get along with his crime returns. The moment of revenge has come. With an old pistol of her grandfather Anna forces the stranger to dig his grave right in front of her families grave. But is she really able to bring it to the deadly end? At least she feels completely wrong with a weapon in her hands. She recognizes, that she is a human being and not a murderer. She can not forgive, but she also can not take revenge by killing the soldier. Later on she leaves her village and her traumatic past to start a new life anywhere else in her beautiful country...

Principle Cast:

Pheline Roggan
Steffen Schroeder