In the shadow of Anzio Annie is a series of episodes that collectively form a story that took place at a villa south of Rome during the Spring of 1944, when a family home was occupied by a German army unit. The soldiers were in command of two enormous railway guns that were kept hidden in a tunnel beneath the house by day and brought out at night to be fired at Anzio some thirty-eight kilometres away in order the keep the Allied forces pinned down on the beachhead. From late January until the middle of May that year, the family, local farmers and soldiers co-existed in a strange world of stillness; a moment in time where one era had ended, another had yet to start and no one seemed in any particular rush to discern the shape of it.
This is a personal and sentimental production of a story of survival, resilience and optimism in a wartime setting from a bygone era. A tale of occupation and air raids interspersed with moments of improvisation, absurdity, human connection and the need to save a herd of cows.
