In a troubled neighborhood in post-war Naples, a decade-spanning chronicle of a local family unfolds. Following the premature death of his wife, a man struggles to raise his two children. Later, his son rises through the ranks of the burgeoning Communist Party while his daughter enters the church.

Famous for his stylized and experimental provocations, German auteur Werner Schroeter took a surprising turn toward realism for this volatile epic, a searing chronicle of Italy’s political upheavals. Adrift on the cruel tides of history, a broken family and their plight mirror a nation in crisis.