Turin, 2005. When her grandfather Guido dies, leaving part of his estate to the Villa Emma Foundation—an organization no one in his family had ever heard of—his granddaughter Lucia decides to investigate by taking a job as a volunteer at the Foundation. There she discovers the extraordinary story of over 70 Jewish children and teenagers from across Europe fleeing Nazi persecution who, in 1942, found refuge at Villa Emma in Nonantola and were saved thanks to the solidarity of the local community. At the foundation, Lucia meets Miranda, a solitary and stern volunteer, whose dark and complex past she soon uncovers—a past linked to the children of Villa Emma and the terrible secret her grandfather took to his grave. Between history and memory, truth and denial, Lucia must confront the weight of a legacy that is not only material but also moral, and decide whether revealing the past is an act of justice or the destruction of her family. Inspired by a true story.
There are stories that have remained on the margins of collective memory for far too long and deserve to be told. Such is the case with the extraordinary story of the Jewish children of Villa Emma and the residents of Nonantola, which took place between 1942 and 1943, a sort of Italian Schindler’s List, in which the hero was the entire community—ordinary citizens who, risking their own safety welcomed, hid, and eventually managed to bring to safety more than 70 Jewish children and teenagers from all over Europe who were fleeing Nazi persecution, in one of the rare chapters of the Holocaust with a happy ending. This act of collective heroism reminds us that the most natural choice, when history brings you face to face with someone in need, is not to look the other way, but rather to lend a helping hand. We want to create an original and relevant movie, with an ambitious narrative structure layered across two timelines: Lucia’s journey of self-discovery, set in the early 2000s in Piedmont, serves as the main storyline, interwoven with the unfolding of events that took place in Nonantola in 1942. The viewer discovers the past alongside Lucia, on a tense and unpredictable journey that leads to a shocking final revelation that will change the protagonist’s life, giving the film the fast-paced rhythm of a thriller and the emotional depth of a coming-of-age story.
