The Garden of the Finzi-Continis
“The Finzi-Continis were Italians living in Ferrara, Italy in 1938. They were rich, beautiful, unapproachable and Jewish. They lived in a walled dream world until they were forced to open the gates.”
In late 1930s Ferrara, Italy, the Finzi-Continis are a leading family: wealthy, aristocratic, and urbane; they are also Jewish. Their adult children, Micol and Alberto, gather a diverse circle of friends for tennis and parties at their villa with its lovely grounds, and try to keep the rest of the world at bay. But tensions between them all grow as anti-Semitism rises in Fascist Italy, and even the Finzi-Continis will have to confront the Holocaust.
A sun-drenched, yet melancholic, portrait of youthful idylls crumbling under the shadow of fascism. It feels like a beautiful, fading memory, tinged with the bittersweet ache of impending loss and the quiet dignity of a world on the brink.
