Winter, 1943. Martina is 8 years old and lives on the slopes of Monte Sole, not far from Bologna. She is the only child of a peasant family who, like many, are struggling to get by. Years previously she lost her newborn brother and hasn’t spoken since. In December her mother becomes pregnant again. Months go by and the child grows in its mother’s womb. Martina anxiously awaits her brother’s arrival as the war gets closer and closer and life becomes more and more difficult. On the night of the 28th of September 1944, the baby is finally born. Almost simultaneously the SS unleash an unprecedented reprisal in the area, which will go down in history as “The Marzabotto Massacre”.

Some years ago I began researching the events that took place in the Apennine Mountains near Bologna best known as “The Marzabotto Massacre”, a particularly ferocious war crime in which about 770 people were killed, mostly elderly, women, and children. Making this film has been anything but simple. Some sixty years later, these tragic events seem hazy. They are veiled by time but also by opposing interpretations and manipulations for political convenience. Bibliographic sources were combined with eyewitness accounts that placed forgotten faces, stories, individuals, and families before our eyes. L’uomo che verrà (The Man Who Will Come) is a film about war as seen from below, from the perspective of the simple folk who unwittingly find themselves caught up in great historical events. Its story unfolds during the nine months of expecting the birth of a child in a peasant family. On the very day that the baby is born, the zone is subjected to an unprecedented reprisal at the hands of the SS. Within this inhuman tragedy, it is the infant’s 8-year-old sister Martina who becomes a ray of hope. These images remind us of the value of a simple handshake, a look, a prayer, a meal, love, as opposed to the cruelty of the SS and the emptiness of death. They give a voice to the innocent people whose lives were stolen, to the martyrs of conflicts that continue to this day, in order that their sacrifice might create an urgent need for peace.