Mino (TV series)
Encyclopedia
Mino was the eighth ZDF
-Weihnachtsserie (Christmas Series), and aired in 1986
. The series was broadcast in Germany
on ZDF, and consisted of 6 episodes. Broadcasting in Germany began on December 25, 1986. The series was also broadcast in Italy
, and consisted of 4 episodes. Broadcasting in Italy began on December 28, 1986. The series was an Italian-German co-production. It was inspired by the Italian novel The little Alpino
by Salvator Gotta
.
university
mathematics
professor. His family is friends with the aristocratic
Austrian
consul
Karl Stolz and his much younger wife Freda. In August 1914 the Rasi family travels to Austria to visit the Stolz family. World War I
has already broken out, but the spirit is upbeat
and both families spend a happy time. That Italy, a member of the Triple Alliance
, has remained neutral at the outbreak of the war causes a slight alteration between Karl and Minos father.
For the Christmas holidays Minos family goes skiing to the Great Saint Bernard Pass in the Aosta Valley. They spend Christmas at the Great Saint Bernard Hospice
and the next day set out on ski
to Courmayeur
. But they are buried by a massive avalanche
. Mino is found by Pin the Saint Bernard dog
of the young Italian smuggler
Rico, who takes Mino to his and his older brothers house. The next day they search for his parents but find only his mothers scarf.
1915: Assuming his parents are dead, Mino stays with Rico and his brother Bastiano. Unbeknown to Mino his parents have survived and in May his father returns to look amid the melting snow for his sons body. His search is unsuccessful and he returns to Milan. In the meantime Italy has declared war
on Austria and Rico is called up
to fight. Bastiano tries to convinces his brother to flee to Switzerland, but Rico chooses to go with all his friends for the "one-two months" of war.
Soon Mino decides to go to Argentina
as his grandparents emigrated with his uncle to Cordoba
. Ricos dog Pin follows Mino. Arriving in the city of Aosta
they find Rico by chance. Rico is now an Alpino
in the Aosta Alpini battalion. The battalions commanding officer Major
Lupo sends Mino to the local orphanage. But Mino soon elopes to find Rico, who has departed with the battalion for the Isonzo front
on the other side of Italy
.
After some time on the road he arrives in a small town in the Friuli – Venezia Giulia region and meets a young girl Nena and her blind grandfather, who scrape by as street musicians. They take him in and Mino and Nena become quickly friends. At diner Mino talks about going to the front to find Rico. The old man tells Mino that war is brutal and no place for kids. He shows him his empty eye socks
and tells a shaken Mino how he lost his eyes and all his friends in the Battle of Adwa. That night Mino and Nena discover an Austrian spy. The spy is captured, but Mino and Nena are shocked when they have to watch the spy and the spies wife being shot the next morning. Soon afterwards Mino and Pin leave to look for Rico once more.
He finally finds the Aosta battalion on the Dolomite
front. Reluctantly Major Lupo allows Mino to stay with the battalion. The soldiers tailor a small uniform, including a Cappello Alpino
, for Mino, who thus becomes a Little Alpino and the mascot of the battalion. In the meantime his father, who has become a captain in the 44° Artillery Regiment, once more returns to Aosta to look for his sons body and by chance learns from Bastiano that Mino lives and left some months earlier. Minos father sets out to find Rico, hoping that he may have information as to where Mino went. In the meantime the Aosta battalion has been ordered to conquer an Austrian mountain position
. Mino stays behind, but as the battle noise moves away he and Pin go to the battlefield to look for him. In a poignant scene Mino walks up the eerily silent mountain, whose slopes are covered with hundreds of dead soldiers, to find Rico dying.
Major Lupo consoles Mino as good he can. As the battalion has been badly mauled it is taken out of the front. Soon afterwards Minos father comes to look for Rico, but only finds Ricos grave.
The Aosta has been moved to the Carso
front. The battalion is sent to the front line trenches
for yet another assault. Mino stays with the battalions priest
Don Giuliano behind, who teaches him to pray not only for his Italian friends, but also for the Austrian soldiers, as the realm of god is a single nation. Soon Don Giuliano goes to the front as his place is with those, who need a priest now. As the artillery shelling
gets more intense Mino begins to drink Grappa
for courage. When the Italian base comes under artillery fire Mino runs to find Don Giuliano, but he gets lost in the fog and smoke and gravely injured by shrapnel becomes unconscious. When he awakes in the night he finds himself tangled in the barbed wire
of no man's land
. Around him he recognizes the corpses of many friends. Pin is let loose by Major Lupo and runs to Mino. Major Lupo orders to rise a white flag
and alone moves towards Mino. Three Austrians soldiers come to aid him and together they manage to cut Mino out of the wire and bandage his wounds.
The next day the battalion buries its dead
, calling out every dead soldiers name. Afterwards Mino is taken with the other wounded to a military hospital
and leaves Pin with Giuseppe. As the cart with the wounded moves down the mountain, the battalion marches to conquer yet another mountain.
1916: Mino has spent the winter in the hospital. He has begun to teach the wounded soldiers to read and write. Major Lupo and Giuseppe come to visit him- Pin has run away, but the rest of the men are fine. When a round of soldiers is called up to go back to the front, the officer in charge, Captain Balestra, tells Mino that his father is alive, he knows him and he will take Mino to him.
Soon Mino and Balestra leave for the front. Major Lupo comes to say goodbye and promises to visit Mino and his father once the war will be over. Balestra brings Mino to Micheles regiments headquarter on the Altopiano d'Asiago
. As Minos father is on a nearby mountain top artillery observation
post, the soldiers put Mino in the crate of a aerial tramway
and send him up the mountain. Halfway up the mountain Mino crosses with the crate going down to the valley and within his father. They see each other and talk for a fraction of a minute before they are separated again.
Mino arrives at the summit station in the middle of the first artillery barrage of the Austrian summer offensive of 1916
. Mino hurries to call his father on the observations posts telephone and learns that his mother is alive and in Treviso
. The phone cable and the aerial tramway are destroyed by the intense shelling and Mino runs away to meet his father down in the valley. But he soon must hide in a crevice from the bombardment. When he comes out the Austrians have swept away the Italian positions and Mino finds only one gravely injured Italian survivor at the observation post. Mino alone carries and drags the wounded Lieutenant from the mountain plateau of Asiago to the valley below. After some days an Italian patrol finds them and brings them to a hospital.
Mino immediately sets out for Treviso
to find his mother. When he arrives he discovers that she is kept in insane asylum
. She has lost her mind, grieving for her dead son. She does not recognize Mino and has a mental breakdown
, when he insists he is her son and alive.
Unable to bear this Mino soon returns to the front at Asiago to find his father. By luck he finds two soldiers, who bring him to the batman of his father. Mino learns that his fathers whereabouts are unknown. Michele stayed behind to blow up the guns and ammunition of the regiment, when the Austrian advance swept the Italian army off the Asiago mountain plateau. That night the batman takes Mino to the first trench, where he calls out to one of his friends fighting on the Austrian side. But the Austrian does not know if Minos father is dead
or prisoner. Mino is convinced his father is alive and is determined to cross the front and go to Austria to find his father. That night Mino climbs through a gorge and successfully crosses the front. He is quickly apprehended by the Austrians. Mino claims to be the nephew of Karl Stolz, who by now is a Colonel
in the Austro–Hungarian Armys general staff and an aide-de-camp
to emperor Franz Joseph I
.
The Stolz take Mino to their villa near Klagenfurt. Karl tells Mino of the death and funeral of emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria
, but soon leaves for Vienna
again and promises Mino that he will do his best to find his father. Mino spends the winter with Freda Stolz in Klagenfurt.
1917: Karl finally has found Michele and brings him to Mino in spring 1917. He also has arranged for a transfer of Michele to a nearby prisoner of war camp
, as Michele refuses to receive special treatment. Karl returns to Vienna and Mino, his father and Freda spend a carefree summer and Minos father begins an affair with Freda. At the end of summer Karl returns. He and his wife discuss that the end of the Austro-Hungarian Empire is near. He also tells Mino that the Austrian army with help from the German Imperial Army
will soon undertake a major offensive against the Italian front. Proudly he shows him the maps with the plan of the attack drawn up by the Bavarian general Konrad Krafft von Dellmensingen
. Mino tells his father about the planned offensive, but his father is indifferent to the information and tells Mino that it is better to loose the war, than to let the war continue.
That night Mino runs away, hoping to bring the information in time to the Italians. He leaves a letter for his father asking for his forgiveness. Mino successfully crosses the front line, but it is already to late and the Italian Army is already in full flight
. Mino is asked by an officer of the Italian Intelligence Service
(Ufficio Informazioni) to stay behind
and act as courier for an Italian spy ring. Mino agrees and is accommodated with a young woman Naide and her newborn child. During the day Mino works in an inn with Naide and in the night he sneaks into an abandoned villa
to retrieve ciphered messages
hidden in Schopenhauer
s The World as Will and Representation
.
Mino soon befriends two Austrian officers Vavra and Delkin. Vavra is an intellectual
, who often goes to the same villa as Mino to read the many books in the villas library. Mino has grown
and begins to look at Naide with different the eyes. She senses it and soon they share his first kiss.
1918: The next summer has come and Vavra by accident reveals to Mino the date of the last Austrian offensive
of the war. Vavra returns from the battle shaken and distraught as his friend Delkin has died and because it is obvious the Italians were aware of the Austrian attack preparations, as the Italian artillery opened fire 30 minutes before the opening of the offensive all along the front inflicted heavy casualties on the crowded Austrians in the front line trenches. That night a suspicious Vavra follows Mino and discovers the Italian spies. The spies tell Mino that an Italian airplane will pick them up in 20 days near Tolmezzo
and that if Mino manages to bring his father there, they will take them along. Vavra reports this to the Austrian military authorities, but without mentioning Minos name.
Mino decides to take the train to Klagenfurt and in the train station meets Nena again. Her grandfather has died. Together they travel to Klagenfurt. In the meantime Karl Stolz has returned from Vienna to his wife. He informs her that the Austrian empire is nearing its end and that she must go to Vienna as Klagenfurt might not be safe when the Austrian Army will collapse. He visits Minos father to express his desperation at the nearing end of the multi-ethnic Austrian Empire. Dressed in his parade uniform
he leaves for the front on Monte Grappa as he does not want to survive the Empire.
Mino and Nena arrive to find Freda leaving for Vienna. Mino quickly finds his father, as the Austrian guards already have deserted the prisoner of war camp. Together they cross the Julian Alps
and make their way to Tolmezzo. They meet up with the two Italian spies. Minos father is unable to speak to his son, as he is too ashamed for having betrayed Mino, his wife and his fatherland. When the biplane
lands a group of Austrian soldiers appear and a firefight ensues. Minos father choses to stay behind to fight off the Austrians and is killed as the airplane takes off.
A delirious Mino is brought to a field hospital and Nena watches over him. Soon the hospital is swamped with wounded and dead as the last Italian offensive of the war
is underway. Mino and Nena stay at the hospital to help. One day Mino finds a gravely wounded Major Lupo between the many wounded. He has been injured while fighting with the 4 Alpini Regiment in the Battle of Monte Grappa. His right arm is amputated
and when he regains consciousness he tells Mino about the last Austrian attacks on Monte Grappa: the Austrians led by a colonel in parade uniform attacked without ammunition and perished all. Mino understands thus that also Karl Stolz is dead.
Giuseppe comes to visit Mino and Lupo at the hospital. He brings Pin with him, who after having run away from the battalion, had crisscrossed the entire front looking for Mino and as he couldn't find him he returned to the Aosta battalion. As Mino has lost his Cappello Alpino
Giuseppe leaves his Cappello to Mino. A deteriorating Lupo is transferred to another hospital and leaves his possessions with Mino. That evening Mino finds a bag with the name tags of the battalions fallen soldiers. As he reads the names of the hundreds of tags, he realizes that only Giuseppe is left of the battalions soldiers he knew. Just at this time the news of the Armistice of villa Giusti spreads through the hospital and all present celebrate the end of the war, save for Mino who sits with the name tags alone in a tent.
The war is over and Mino is decorated by General Diaz
with a Gold Medal of Military Valor
for his and his fathers service. He tells the general, that neither him nor his father did the war do any good.
Mino returns to Milan with Pin. Nena choses to stay behind. In Milan he sells all the family's property to move with his mother to Cordoba
in Argentina. It remains unclear if his mother has overcome her mental breakdown and does recognize him. The last scene of the movie is Mino and his mother dancing through their empty Milan flat to the tunes of an Austrian waltz
.
of the Italian Army
s 4th Alpine Army Corps
.
ZDF
Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen , ZDF, is a public-service German television broadcaster based in Mainz . It is run as an independent non-profit institution, which was founded by the German federal states . The ZDF is financed by television licence fees called GEZ and advertising revenues...
-Weihnachtsserie (Christmas Series), and aired in 1986
1986 in television
The year 1986 in television involved some significant events.Below is a list of television-related events in 1986.For the American network television schedule, please see 1986-87 American network television schedule.-Events:-Debuts:*September 6 –...
. The series was broadcast in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
on ZDF, and consisted of 6 episodes. Broadcasting in Germany began on December 25, 1986. The series was also broadcast in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, and consisted of 4 episodes. Broadcasting in Italy began on December 28, 1986. The series was an Italian-German co-production. It was inspired by the Italian novel The little Alpino
Alpini
The Alpini, , are the elite mountain warfare soldiers of the Italian Army. They are currently organized in two operational brigades, which are subordinated to the Alpini Corps Command. The singular is Alpino ....
by Salvator Gotta
Salvator Gotta
Salvator Gotta was an Italian writer. He was best known as a prolific novelist, but he was also a biographer, playwright, screenplay writer, and writer of children's books.-Life and work:...
.
Episodes 1 & 2
1914: Giacomino "Mino" Rasi is the ten-year-old son of a MilanMilan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
university
University of Milan
The University of Milan is a higher education institution in Milan, Italy. It is one of the largest universities in Europe, with about 62,801 students, a teaching and research staff of 2,455 and a non-teaching staff of 2,200....
mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
professor. His family is friends with the aristocratic
Nobility
Nobility is a social class which possesses more acknowledged privileges or eminence than members of most other classes in a society, membership therein typically being hereditary. The privileges associated with nobility may constitute substantial advantages over or relative to non-nobles, or may be...
Austrian
Austrian Empire
The Austrian Empire was a modern era successor empire, which was centered on what is today's Austria and which officially lasted from 1804 to 1867. It was followed by the Empire of Austria-Hungary, whose proclamation was a diplomatic move that elevated Hungary's status within the Austrian Empire...
consul
Consul
Consul was the highest elected office of the Roman Republic and an appointive office under the Empire. The title was also used in other city states and also revived in modern states, notably in the First French Republic...
Karl Stolz and his much younger wife Freda. In August 1914 the Rasi family travels to Austria to visit the Stolz family. World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
has already broken out, but the spirit is upbeat
Spirit of 1914
The Spirit of 1914 refers to the alleged jubilation in Germany at the outbreak of World War I. Many individuals remembered that euphoria erupted on 4 August 1914 after all the political parties in the Reichstag, including the previously antimilitarist Social Democratic Party of Germany , supported...
and both families spend a happy time. That Italy, a member of the Triple Alliance
Triple Alliance (1882)
The Triple Alliance was the military alliance between Germany, Austria–Hungary, and Italy, , that lasted from 1882 until the start of World War I in 1914...
, has remained neutral at the outbreak of the war causes a slight alteration between Karl and Minos father.
For the Christmas holidays Minos family goes skiing to the Great Saint Bernard Pass in the Aosta Valley. They spend Christmas at the Great Saint Bernard Hospice
Great St Bernard Hospice
The Great St Bernard Hospice is a hospice or hostel for travellers in Switzerland, at 2469m altitude at the Great St Bernard Pass in the Pennine Alps. The frontier with Italy is only a few hundred metres to the south.-History:...
and the next day set out on ski
Ski touring
Ski touring is a form of backcountry skiing involving traveling over the winter landscape on skis under human power rather than through the assistance of ski lifts or snow vehicles. It can take place in terrain ranging from perfectly flat to extremely steep...
to Courmayeur
Courmayeur
Courmayeur is an Italian town and comune in the autonomous region of Aosta Valley, in northern Italy. It is located at the foot of Mont Blanc, the highest mountain in western Europe, in the Graian Alps range, and is crossed by the Dora Baltea...
. But they are buried by a massive avalanche
Avalanche
An avalanche is a sudden rapid flow of snow down a slope, occurring when either natural triggers or human activity causes a critical escalating transition from the slow equilibrium evolution of the snow pack. Typically occurring in mountainous terrain, an avalanche can mix air and water with the...
. Mino is found by Pin the Saint Bernard dog
St. Bernard (dog)
The St. Bernard is a breed of very large working dog from the Italian and Swiss Alps, originally bred for rescue. The breed has become famous through tales of alpine rescues, as well as for its large size.-Appearance:The St. Bernard is a large dog...
of the young Italian smuggler
Smuggling
Smuggling is the clandestine transportation of goods or persons, such as out of a building, into a prison, or across an international border, in violation of applicable laws or other regulations.There are various motivations to smuggle...
Rico, who takes Mino to his and his older brothers house. The next day they search for his parents but find only his mothers scarf.
1915: Assuming his parents are dead, Mino stays with Rico and his brother Bastiano. Unbeknown to Mino his parents have survived and in May his father returns to look amid the melting snow for his sons body. His search is unsuccessful and he returns to Milan. In the meantime Italy has declared war
Italian Campaign (World War I)
The Italian campaign refers to a series of battles fought between the armies of Austria-Hungary and Italy, along with their allies, in northern Italy between 1915 and 1918. Italy hoped that by joining the countries of the Triple Entente against the Central Powers it would gain Cisalpine Tyrol , the...
on Austria and Rico is called up
Conscription
Conscription is the compulsory enlistment of people in some sort of national service, most often military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and continues in some countries to the present day under various names...
to fight. Bastiano tries to convinces his brother to flee to Switzerland, but Rico chooses to go with all his friends for the "one-two months" of war.
Soon Mino decides to go to Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
as his grandparents emigrated with his uncle to Cordoba
Córdoba, Argentina
Córdoba is a city located near the geographical center of Argentina, in the foothills of the Sierras Chicas on the Suquía River, about northwest of Buenos Aires. It is the capital of Córdoba Province. Córdoba is the second-largest city in Argentina after the federal capital Buenos Aires, with...
. Ricos dog Pin follows Mino. Arriving in the city of Aosta
Aosta
Aosta is the principal city of the bilingual Aosta Valley in the Italian Alps, north-northwest of Turin. It is situated near the Italian entrance of the Mont Blanc Tunnel, at the confluence of the Buthier and the Dora Baltea, and at the junction of the Great and Little St. Bernard routes...
they find Rico by chance. Rico is now an Alpino
Alpini
The Alpini, , are the elite mountain warfare soldiers of the Italian Army. They are currently organized in two operational brigades, which are subordinated to the Alpini Corps Command. The singular is Alpino ....
in the Aosta Alpini battalion. The battalions commanding officer Major
Major
Major is a rank of commissioned officer, with corresponding ranks existing in almost every military in the world.When used unhyphenated, in conjunction with no other indicator of rank, the term refers to the rank just senior to that of an Army captain and just below the rank of lieutenant colonel. ...
Lupo sends Mino to the local orphanage. But Mino soon elopes to find Rico, who has departed with the battalion for the Isonzo front
Battles of the Isonzo
The Battles of the Isonzo were a series of 12 battles between the Austro-Hungarian and Italian armies in World War I. They were fought along the Soča River on the eastern sector of the Italian Front between June 1915 and November 1917...
on the other side of Italy
Geography of Italy
Italy is located in southern Europe and comprises the long, boot-shaped Italian Peninsula, the land between the peninsula and the Alps, and a number of islands including Sicily and Sardinia . Its total area is , of which is land and...
.
After some time on the road he arrives in a small town in the Friuli – Venezia Giulia region and meets a young girl Nena and her blind grandfather, who scrape by as street musicians. They take him in and Mino and Nena become quickly friends. At diner Mino talks about going to the front to find Rico. The old man tells Mino that war is brutal and no place for kids. He shows him his empty eye socks
Orbit (anatomy)
In anatomy, the orbit is the cavity or socket of the skull in which the eye and its appendages are situated. "Orbit" can refer to the bony socket, or it can also be used to imply the contents...
and tells a shaken Mino how he lost his eyes and all his friends in the Battle of Adwa. That night Mino and Nena discover an Austrian spy. The spy is captured, but Mino and Nena are shocked when they have to watch the spy and the spies wife being shot the next morning. Soon afterwards Mino and Pin leave to look for Rico once more.
He finally finds the Aosta battalion on the Dolomite
Dolomites
The Dolomites are a mountain range located in north-eastern Italy. It is a part of Southern Limestone Alps and extends from the River Adige in the west to the Piave Valley in the east. The northern and southern borders are defined by the Puster Valley and the Sugana Valley...
front. Reluctantly Major Lupo allows Mino to stay with the battalion. The soldiers tailor a small uniform, including a Cappello Alpino
Cappello Alpino
The Cappello Alpino is the most distinctive feature of the Italian Army's Alpini troops uniform. The Alpini are light Infantry troops, specializing in mountain combat. Initially the Cappello was only issued to the Alpini, but soon the Cappello was adopted by the Alpini Corps' support units like...
, for Mino, who thus becomes a Little Alpino and the mascot of the battalion. In the meantime his father, who has become a captain in the 44° Artillery Regiment, once more returns to Aosta to look for his sons body and by chance learns from Bastiano that Mino lives and left some months earlier. Minos father sets out to find Rico, hoping that he may have information as to where Mino went. In the meantime the Aosta battalion has been ordered to conquer an Austrian mountain position
Mountain warfare
Mountain warfare refers to warfare in the mountains or similarly rough terrain. This type of warfare is also called Alpine warfare, named after the Alps mountains...
. Mino stays behind, but as the battle noise moves away he and Pin go to the battlefield to look for him. In a poignant scene Mino walks up the eerily silent mountain, whose slopes are covered with hundreds of dead soldiers, to find Rico dying.
Major Lupo consoles Mino as good he can. As the battalion has been badly mauled it is taken out of the front. Soon afterwards Minos father comes to look for Rico, but only finds Ricos grave.
The Aosta has been moved to the Carso
Kras
Karst ; also known as the Karst Plateau, is a limestone borderline plateau region extending in southwestern Slovenia and northeastern Italy. It lies between the Vipava Valley, the low hills surrounding the valley, the westernmost part of the Brkini Hills, northern Istria, and the Gulf of Trieste...
front. The battalion is sent to the front line trenches
Trench warfare
Trench warfare is a form of occupied fighting lines, consisting largely of trenches, in which troops are largely immune to the enemy's small arms fire and are substantially sheltered from artillery...
for yet another assault. Mino stays with the battalions priest
Military chaplain
A military chaplain is a chaplain who ministers to soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines and other members of the military. In many countries, chaplains also minister to the family members of military personnel, to civilian noncombatants working for military organizations and to civilians within the...
Don Giuliano behind, who teaches him to pray not only for his Italian friends, but also for the Austrian soldiers, as the realm of god is a single nation. Soon Don Giuliano goes to the front as his place is with those, who need a priest now. As the artillery shelling
Bombardment
A bombardment is an attack by artillery fire directed against fortifications, troops or towns and buildings.Prior to World War I the term term was only applied to the bombardment of defenceless or undefended objects, houses, public buildings, it was only loosely employed to describe artillery...
gets more intense Mino begins to drink Grappa
Grappa
Grappa is an alcoholic beverage, a fragrant, grape-based pomace brandy of Italian origin that contains 35%–60% alcohol by volume...
for courage. When the Italian base comes under artillery fire Mino runs to find Don Giuliano, but he gets lost in the fog and smoke and gravely injured by shrapnel becomes unconscious. When he awakes in the night he finds himself tangled in the barbed wire
Barbed wire
Barbed wire, also known as barb wire , is a type of fencing wire constructed with sharp edges or points arranged at intervals along the strand. It is used to construct inexpensive fences and is used atop walls surrounding secured property...
of no man's land
No man's land
No man's land is a term for land that is unoccupied or is under dispute between parties that leave it unoccupied due to fear or uncertainty. The term was originally used to define a contested territory or a dumping ground for refuse between fiefdoms...
. Around him he recognizes the corpses of many friends. Pin is let loose by Major Lupo and runs to Mino. Major Lupo orders to rise a white flag
White flag
White flags have had different meanings throughout history and depending on the locale.-Flag of temporary truce in order to parley :...
and alone moves towards Mino. Three Austrians soldiers come to aid him and together they manage to cut Mino out of the wire and bandage his wounds.
The next day the battalion buries its dead
Military funeral
A military funeral is a specially orchestrated funeral given by a country's military for a soldier, sailor, marine or airman who died in battle, a veteran, or other prominent military figures or heads of state. A military funeral may feature guards of honor, the firing of volley shots as a salute,...
, calling out every dead soldiers name. Afterwards Mino is taken with the other wounded to a military hospital
Hospital
A hospital is a health care institution providing patient treatment by specialized staff and equipment. Hospitals often, but not always, provide for inpatient care or longer-term patient stays....
and leaves Pin with Giuseppe. As the cart with the wounded moves down the mountain, the battalion marches to conquer yet another mountain.
1916: Mino has spent the winter in the hospital. He has begun to teach the wounded soldiers to read and write. Major Lupo and Giuseppe come to visit him- Pin has run away, but the rest of the men are fine. When a round of soldiers is called up to go back to the front, the officer in charge, Captain Balestra, tells Mino that his father is alive, he knows him and he will take Mino to him.
Episodes 3 & 4
Asiago
Asiago is the name of both a minor township and the surrounding plateau region in the Province of Vicenza in the Veneto region of Northeastern Italy...
. As Minos father is on a nearby mountain top artillery observation
Artillery observer
A military artillery observer or spotter is responsible for directing artillery fire and close air support onto enemy positions. Because artillery is an indirect fire weapon system, the guns are rarely in line-of-sight of their target, often located tens of miles away...
post, the soldiers put Mino in the crate of a aerial tramway
Aerial tramway
An aerial tramway , cable car , ropeway or aerial tram is a type of aerial lift which uses one or two stationary ropes for support while a third moving rope provides propulsion...
and send him up the mountain. Halfway up the mountain Mino crosses with the crate going down to the valley and within his father. They see each other and talk for a fraction of a minute before they are separated again.
Mino arrives at the summit station in the middle of the first artillery barrage of the Austrian summer offensive of 1916
Battle of Asiago
The Battle of Asiago ' or the Trentino Offensive , nicknamed Strafexpedition by the Austrians, was a counteroffensive launched by the Austro-Hungarians on the Italian Front on 15 May 1916, during World War I...
. Mino hurries to call his father on the observations posts telephone and learns that his mother is alive and in Treviso
Treviso
Treviso is a city and comune in Veneto, northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Treviso and the municipality has 82,854 inhabitants : some 3,000 live within the Venetian walls or in the historical and monumental center, some 80,000 live in the urban center proper, while the city...
. The phone cable and the aerial tramway are destroyed by the intense shelling and Mino runs away to meet his father down in the valley. But he soon must hide in a crevice from the bombardment. When he comes out the Austrians have swept away the Italian positions and Mino finds only one gravely injured Italian survivor at the observation post. Mino alone carries and drags the wounded Lieutenant from the mountain plateau of Asiago to the valley below. After some days an Italian patrol finds them and brings them to a hospital.
Mino immediately sets out for Treviso
Treviso
Treviso is a city and comune in Veneto, northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Treviso and the municipality has 82,854 inhabitants : some 3,000 live within the Venetian walls or in the historical and monumental center, some 80,000 live in the urban center proper, while the city...
to find his mother. When he arrives he discovers that she is kept in insane asylum
Psychiatric hospital
Psychiatric hospitals, also known as mental hospitals, are hospitals specializing in the treatment of serious mental disorders. Psychiatric hospitals vary widely in their size and grading. Some hospitals may specialise only in short-term or outpatient therapy for low-risk patients...
. She has lost her mind, grieving for her dead son. She does not recognize Mino and has a mental breakdown
Mental breakdown
Mental breakdown is a non-medical term used to describe an acute, time-limited phase of a specific disorder that presents primarily with features of depression or anxiety.-Definition:...
, when he insists he is her son and alive.
Unable to bear this Mino soon returns to the front at Asiago to find his father. By luck he finds two soldiers, who bring him to the batman of his father. Mino learns that his fathers whereabouts are unknown. Michele stayed behind to blow up the guns and ammunition of the regiment, when the Austrian advance swept the Italian army off the Asiago mountain plateau. That night the batman takes Mino to the first trench, where he calls out to one of his friends fighting on the Austrian side. But the Austrian does not know if Minos father is dead
Killed in action
Killed in action is a casualty classification generally used by militaries to describe the deaths of their own forces at the hands of hostile forces. The United States Department of Defense, for example, says that those declared KIA need not have fired their weapons but have been killed due to...
or prisoner. Mino is convinced his father is alive and is determined to cross the front and go to Austria to find his father. That night Mino climbs through a gorge and successfully crosses the front. He is quickly apprehended by the Austrians. Mino claims to be the nephew of Karl Stolz, who by now is a Colonel
Colonel
Colonel , abbreviated Col or COL, is a military rank of a senior commissioned officer. It or a corresponding rank exists in most armies and in many air forces; the naval equivalent rank is generally "Captain". It is also used in some police forces and other paramilitary rank structures...
in the Austro–Hungarian Armys general staff and an aide-de-camp
Aide-de-camp
An aide-de-camp is a personal assistant, secretary, or adjutant to a person of high rank, usually a senior military officer or a head of state...
to emperor Franz Joseph I
Franz Joseph I of Austria
Franz Joseph I or Francis Joseph I was Emperor of Austria, King of Bohemia, King of Croatia, Apostolic King of Hungary, King of Galicia and Lodomeria and Grand Duke of Cracow from 1848 until his death in 1916.In the December of 1848, Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria abdicated the throne as part of...
.
The Stolz take Mino to their villa near Klagenfurt. Karl tells Mino of the death and funeral of emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria
Franz Joseph I of Austria
Franz Joseph I or Francis Joseph I was Emperor of Austria, King of Bohemia, King of Croatia, Apostolic King of Hungary, King of Galicia and Lodomeria and Grand Duke of Cracow from 1848 until his death in 1916.In the December of 1848, Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria abdicated the throne as part of...
, but soon leaves for Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
again and promises Mino that he will do his best to find his father. Mino spends the winter with Freda Stolz in Klagenfurt.
1917: Karl finally has found Michele and brings him to Mino in spring 1917. He also has arranged for a transfer of Michele to a nearby prisoner of war camp
Prisoner-of-war camp
A prisoner-of-war camp is a site for the containment of combatants captured by their enemy in time of war, and is similar to an internment camp which is used for civilian populations. A prisoner of war is generally a soldier, sailor, or airman who is imprisoned by an enemy power during or...
, as Michele refuses to receive special treatment. Karl returns to Vienna and Mino, his father and Freda spend a carefree summer and Minos father begins an affair with Freda. At the end of summer Karl returns. He and his wife discuss that the end of the Austro-Hungarian Empire is near. He also tells Mino that the Austrian army with help from the German Imperial Army
German Army (German Empire)
The German Army was the name given the combined land forces of the German Empire, also known as the National Army , Imperial Army or Imperial German Army. The term "Deutsches Heer" is also used for the modern German Army, the land component of the German Bundeswehr...
will soon undertake a major offensive against the Italian front. Proudly he shows him the maps with the plan of the attack drawn up by the Bavarian general Konrad Krafft von Dellmensingen
Konrad Krafft von Dellmensingen
Konrad Krafft von Dellmensingen was a Bavarian Army general in World War I. He served as Chief of the General Staff of the Royal Bavarian Army before World War I and commanded the elite Alpenkorps, the Imperial German Army's mountain division formed in 1915.-Early life:Krafft von Dellmensingen...
. Mino tells his father about the planned offensive, but his father is indifferent to the information and tells Mino that it is better to loose the war, than to let the war continue.
That night Mino runs away, hoping to bring the information in time to the Italians. He leaves a letter for his father asking for his forgiveness. Mino successfully crosses the front line, but it is already to late and the Italian Army is already in full flight
Battle of Caporetto
The Battle of Caporetto , took place from 24 October to 19 November 1917, near the town of Kobarid , on the Austro-Italian front of World War I...
. Mino is asked by an officer of the Italian Intelligence Service
Intelligence agency
An intelligence agency is a governmental agency that is devoted to information gathering for purposes of national security and defence. Means of information gathering may include espionage, communication interception, cryptanalysis, cooperation with other institutions, and evaluation of public...
(Ufficio Informazioni) to stay behind
Stay-behind
In a stay-behind operation, a country places secret operatives or organisations in its own territory, for use in the event that the territory is overrun by an enemy. If this occurs, the operatives would then form the basis of a resistance movement, or would act as spies from behind enemy lines...
and act as courier for an Italian spy ring. Mino agrees and is accommodated with a young woman Naide and her newborn child. During the day Mino works in an inn with Naide and in the night he sneaks into an abandoned villa
Villa
A villa was originally an ancient Roman upper-class country house. Since its origins in the Roman villa, the idea and function of a villa have evolved considerably. After the fall of the Roman Republic, villas became small farming compounds, which were increasingly fortified in Late Antiquity,...
to retrieve ciphered messages
Code (cryptography)
In cryptography, a code is a method used to transform a message into an obscured form, preventing those who do not possess special information, or key, required to apply the transform from understanding what is actually transmitted. The usual method is to use a codebook with a list of common...
hidden in Schopenhauer
Arthur Schopenhauer
Arthur Schopenhauer was a German philosopher known for his pessimism and philosophical clarity. At age 25, he published his doctoral dissertation, On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason, which examined the four separate manifestations of reason in the phenomenal...
s The World as Will and Representation
The World as Will and Representation
The World as Will and Representation is the central work of the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer. The first edition was published in December 1818, and the second expanded edition in 1844. In 1948, an abridged version was edited by Thomas Mann....
.
Mino soon befriends two Austrian officers Vavra and Delkin. Vavra is an intellectual
Intellectual
An intellectual is a person who uses intelligence and critical or analytical reasoning in either a professional or a personal capacity.- Terminology and endeavours :"Intellectual" can denote four types of persons:...
, who often goes to the same villa as Mino to read the many books in the villas library. Mino has grown
Puberty
Puberty is the process of physical changes by which a child's body matures into an adult body capable of reproduction, as initiated by hormonal signals from the brain to the gonads; the ovaries in a girl, the testes in a boy...
and begins to look at Naide with different the eyes. She senses it and soon they share his first kiss.
1918: The next summer has come and Vavra by accident reveals to Mino the date of the last Austrian offensive
Battle of the Piave River
The Battle of the Piave River , known in Italy as Battaglia del Solstizio , Battaglia di Mezzo Giugno , or Seconda Battaglia del Piave , was a decisive victory for the Italian Army during World War...
of the war. Vavra returns from the battle shaken and distraught as his friend Delkin has died and because it is obvious the Italians were aware of the Austrian attack preparations, as the Italian artillery opened fire 30 minutes before the opening of the offensive all along the front inflicted heavy casualties on the crowded Austrians in the front line trenches. That night a suspicious Vavra follows Mino and discovers the Italian spies. The spies tell Mino that an Italian airplane will pick them up in 20 days near Tolmezzo
Tolmezzo
Tolmezzo is a town and comune in the province of Udine, part of the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region of north-eastern Italy.-Geography:Tolmezzo is located at the feet of the Strabut Mountain, between the Tagliamento River and the Bût stream. Nearby is the Mount Amariana...
and that if Mino manages to bring his father there, they will take them along. Vavra reports this to the Austrian military authorities, but without mentioning Minos name.
Mino decides to take the train to Klagenfurt and in the train station meets Nena again. Her grandfather has died. Together they travel to Klagenfurt. In the meantime Karl Stolz has returned from Vienna to his wife. He informs her that the Austrian empire is nearing its end and that she must go to Vienna as Klagenfurt might not be safe when the Austrian Army will collapse. He visits Minos father to express his desperation at the nearing end of the multi-ethnic Austrian Empire. Dressed in his parade uniform
Dress uniform
Dress uniform , is the most formal military uniform, typically worn at ceremonies, official receptions, and other special occasions; with order insignias and full size medals...
he leaves for the front on Monte Grappa as he does not want to survive the Empire.
Mino and Nena arrive to find Freda leaving for Vienna. Mino quickly finds his father, as the Austrian guards already have deserted the prisoner of war camp. Together they cross the Julian Alps
Julian Alps
The Julian Alps are a mountain range of the Southern Limestone Alps that stretches from northeastern Italy to Slovenia, where they rise to 2,864 m at Mount Triglav. They are named after Julius Caesar, who founded the municipium of Cividale del Friuli at the foot of the mountains...
and make their way to Tolmezzo. They meet up with the two Italian spies. Minos father is unable to speak to his son, as he is too ashamed for having betrayed Mino, his wife and his fatherland. When the biplane
Biplane
A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two superimposed main wings. The Wright brothers' Wright Flyer used a biplane design, as did most aircraft in the early years of aviation. While a biplane wing structure has a structural advantage, it produces more drag than a similar monoplane wing...
lands a group of Austrian soldiers appear and a firefight ensues. Minos father choses to stay behind to fight off the Austrians and is killed as the airplane takes off.
A delirious Mino is brought to a field hospital and Nena watches over him. Soon the hospital is swamped with wounded and dead as the last Italian offensive of the war
Battle of Vittorio Veneto
The Battle of Vittorio Veneto was fought between 24 October and 3 November 1918, near Vittorio Veneto, during the Italian Campaign of World War I...
is underway. Mino and Nena stay at the hospital to help. One day Mino finds a gravely wounded Major Lupo between the many wounded. He has been injured while fighting with the 4 Alpini Regiment in the Battle of Monte Grappa. His right arm is amputated
Amputation
Amputation is the removal of a body extremity by trauma, prolonged constriction, or surgery. As a surgical measure, it is used to control pain or a disease process in the affected limb, such as malignancy or gangrene. In some cases, it is carried out on individuals as a preventative surgery for...
and when he regains consciousness he tells Mino about the last Austrian attacks on Monte Grappa: the Austrians led by a colonel in parade uniform attacked without ammunition and perished all. Mino understands thus that also Karl Stolz is dead.
Giuseppe comes to visit Mino and Lupo at the hospital. He brings Pin with him, who after having run away from the battalion, had crisscrossed the entire front looking for Mino and as he couldn't find him he returned to the Aosta battalion. As Mino has lost his Cappello Alpino
Cappello Alpino
The Cappello Alpino is the most distinctive feature of the Italian Army's Alpini troops uniform. The Alpini are light Infantry troops, specializing in mountain combat. Initially the Cappello was only issued to the Alpini, but soon the Cappello was adopted by the Alpini Corps' support units like...
Giuseppe leaves his Cappello to Mino. A deteriorating Lupo is transferred to another hospital and leaves his possessions with Mino. That evening Mino finds a bag with the name tags of the battalions fallen soldiers. As he reads the names of the hundreds of tags, he realizes that only Giuseppe is left of the battalions soldiers he knew. Just at this time the news of the Armistice of villa Giusti spreads through the hospital and all present celebrate the end of the war, save for Mino who sits with the name tags alone in a tent.
The war is over and Mino is decorated by General Diaz
Armando Diaz
Armando Diaz, 1st Duca della Vittoria was an Italian general and a Marshal of Italy.Born in Naples, Diaz began his military career as a student at the Military Academy of Turin, where he became an artillery officer. He was a colonel commanding the 93rd infantry during the Italo-Turkish War, and...
with a Gold Medal of Military Valor
Gold Medal of Military Valor
The Gold Medal of Military Valor is an Italian medal established on 21 May 1793 by King Victor Amadeus III of Sardinia "....per bassi ufficiali e soldati che avevano fatto azioni di segnalato valore in guerra" .The face of the medal displayed the profile of the king, and on its reverse was a flag...
for his and his fathers service. He tells the general, that neither him nor his father did the war do any good.
Mino returns to Milan with Pin. Nena choses to stay behind. In Milan he sells all the family's property to move with his mother to Cordoba
Córdoba, Argentina
Córdoba is a city located near the geographical center of Argentina, in the foothills of the Sierras Chicas on the Suquía River, about northwest of Buenos Aires. It is the capital of Córdoba Province. Córdoba is the second-largest city in Argentina after the federal capital Buenos Aires, with...
in Argentina. It remains unclear if his mother has overcome her mental breakdown and does recognize him. The last scene of the movie is Mino and his mother dancing through their empty Milan flat to the tunes of an Austrian waltz
Waltz
The waltz is a ballroom and folk dance in time, performed primarily in closed position.- History :There are several references to a sliding or gliding dance,- a waltz, from the 16th century including the representations of the printer H.S. Beheim...
.
Cast
| Character | Actor | Episode |
|---|---|---|
| Mino | Guido Cella | All |
| Michele Rasi | Ray Lovelock Ray Lovelock Ray Lovelock is a fictional character in the Macross universe. He first appears in Macross 7, and also appears in the movie Macross 7: The Galaxy Is Calling Me and the OAVs Macross 7 Encore and Macross Dynamite 7. He is voiced by Masashi Sugahara.Ray was once an ace U.N. Spacy fighter pilot,... |
All |
| Enrica Rasi | Ottavia Piccolo Ottavia Piccolo Ottavia Piccolo is an Italian theatre and film actress. She has appeared in 45 films since 1962. She won the award for Best Actress at the 1970 Cannes Film Festival for the film Metello.-Selected filmography:* The Leopard... |
1, 3, 4 |
| Major Lupo | Mario Adorf Mario Adorf Mario Adorf is a German film and stage actor, best known for his lead role in the 1978 film The Tin Drum.-Biography:... |
All |
| Freda Stolz | Barabara May | 1, 3, 4 |
| Carlo Stolz | Michael Heltau Michael Heltau Michael Heltau is an German television actor and singer, living in Austria.-Television appearances:*Mino *Maximilian von Mexiko - External links :* *... |
1, 3, 4 |
| Rico | Piere Cosso | 1, 2 |
| Nena | Simona Cavallari Simona Cavallari Simona Cavallari Simona Cavallari Simona Cavallari (born 5 April 1971, Rome, is an Italian actress of the cinema, theatre, and television.She made her acting debut in 1982 at the age of eleven in the television film Colomba. In 1985, she had a role in The Pizza Connection, directed by Damiano Damiani... |
2, 4 |
| Naide | Susanna Fassetta | 4 |
| Don Giuliano | Carlos Velat | 2 |
| Yaroslav Vavra | Dieter Schidor | 4 |
| Bastiano | Luigi Mezzanotte | 1, 2 |
| Giuseppe | Delio Chittò | 2, 3, 4 |
| General Diaz Armando Diaz Armando Diaz, 1st Duca della Vittoria was an Italian general and a Marshal of Italy.Born in Naples, Diaz began his military career as a student at the Military Academy of Turin, where he became an artillery officer. He was a colonel commanding the 93rd infantry during the Italo-Turkish War, and... |
Edmondo Tieghi | 4 |
Production
The series was filmed at the original locations in Northern Italy. The production got wide ranging support from the AlpiniAlpini
The Alpini, , are the elite mountain warfare soldiers of the Italian Army. They are currently organized in two operational brigades, which are subordinated to the Alpini Corps Command. The singular is Alpino ....
of the Italian Army
Italian Army
The Italian Army is the ground defence force of the Italian Armed Forces. It is all-volunteer force of active-duty personnel, numbering 108,355 in 2010. Its best-known combat vehicles are the Dardo infantry fighting vehicle, the Centauro tank destroyer and the Ariete tank, and among its aircraft...
s 4th Alpine Army Corps
COMALP
- External links :*...
.
External links
- Mino in the Internet Movie DatabaseInternet Movie DatabaseInternet Movie Database is an online database of information related to movies, television shows, actors, production crew personnel, video games and fictional characters featured in visual entertainment media. It is one of the most popular online entertainment destinations, with over 100 million...
- Collections of hundreds of stills from the movie
- Episode Guide