Mussolini's Dirty War

In 1943, the Italian army massacred 150 innocent farmers in the Greek village of Domenikon, nearby the Mount Olympus. After sixty years, the massacre of Domenikon is still unpunished. Stathis Psomiadis, who lost his grandfather in the massacre, is collecting evidence to obtain justice. Meanwhile, in Rome, Lidia Santarelli, history professor at New York University, is studying documents to reveal war crimes committed by Italian soldiers during the occupation of Greece. As Stathis hears from witnesses and survivors, Professor Santarelli finds out that Domenikon was only the first of a terrible series of mass executions, in which thousands of civilians from over 400 villages were slaughtered.

The massacres were consistent with a strategy of war against civilians that Mussolini had been adopting since colonial wars in Africa and was largely employed in occupied countries during the Second World War. Despite thousands of civilians were tortured or assassinated by Mussolini’s soldiers as a result of this strategy, none of the 1500 fascists denounced to the International Commission of UN were ever prosecuted. While Nazi war criminals faced Nuremberg trials, Italian crimes remained unpunished, as United States and United Kingdom encouraged the falling of a veil of secrecy over Mussolini's dirty war.

Team Partner

Giovanni Donfrancesco, director

Producer / Production Details

GA&A in co-production with ERT, in association with RTI Spa, Fox International Schannels Italia, Histoire, RTSI