The winds of war are blowing in 1938 and the racial laws imposing injustice, but a group of young people intends to continue their normal life. So, when the city’s tennis club is closed to Jews, they meet to play in the immense garden provided by the Finzi-Continis. The setting is recognisably Ferrara, with the Synagogue, the ex-theatre Giuseppe Verdi, used as the cinema in the film, and the Jewish Cemetery where Alberto is buried, which is also used as the garden boundary wall to the Finzi-Contini garden.
The exterior of the villa is that of Villa Litta Modigliani in Vedano al Lambro (MB) near the Park of Monza. To create the immense titular garden, locations in the Park in Monza and Villa Ada in Rome were used.
The library that Giorgio is asked to leave because he is Jewish is the Biblioteca Angelica in Rome, while the private Finzi-Contini library where he is welcomed to study is that of Palazzo Primoli, also in Rome.
The winds of war are blowing in 1938 and the racial laws imposing injustice, but a group of young people intends to continue their normal life. So, when the city’s tennis club is closed to Jews, they meet to play in the immense garden provided by the Finzi-Continis. The setting is recognisably Ferrara, with the Synagogue, the ex-theatre Giuseppe Verdi, used as the cinema in the film, and the Jewish Cemetery where Alberto is buried, which is also used as the garden boundary wall to the Finzi-Contini garden.
The exterior of the villa is that of Villa Litta Modigliani in Vedano al Lambro (MB) near the Park of Monza. To create the immense titular garden, locations in the Park in Monza and Villa Ada in Rome were used.
The library that Giorgio is asked to leave because he is Jewish is the Biblioteca Angelica in Rome, while the private Finzi-Contini library where he is welcomed to study is that of Palazzo Primoli, also in Rome.
Arthur Cohn, Gianni Hecht Lucari
Based on the novel of the same name by Giorgio Bassani. In Ferrara, the Finzi-Continis, an aristocratic family of Jewish origin, live quietly in their villa and garden, allowing visits from a few friends, while out in the world the racial laws are creating inequality and the country is heading towards WWII.
