L'ultimo giorno di scuola prima delle vacanze di Natale

Brief synopsis North Italy, spring 1945, during the nazi-fascist occupation. A gang of fugitive republican fascists (John Steiner, Macha Meril and Lino Capolicchio) kidnaps a metrobus full of civilians and tries to escape to the Swiss's border, in order to recover from the advancing allies and partisans. During the journey, we are able to see (throughout some flash-backs) the fascists's activities prior to their runout (Macha Meril, in the role of Egle, a female volunteer for Italian Social Republic, in the attempt to humiliate a nude prisoner before sentencing him to death) alongside the captured civilians (remebrances of their "normal" lives under allies' bombs and everyday's troubles of wartime). As the movie rolls on and the Swiss's border approaches, the three kidnappers decide to kill their hostages anyway: one by one they're picked up and executed and, at the end of the movie, the three villains arrive at the border...but all the area has been already taken under control by the partisans.... "The last day of school before the Christmas' holidays" is a small, rare and raw documentary about cruelty of the war, especially civil ones (expecially Italy's civil war, very often ignored by researchers and film makers). This movie is actually unreleased on homevideo and it's a shame: it anticipates Pasolini's "Salò o le 120 giornate di Sodoma". I had been lucky enough to see it once on a latenight show, but I still remember it for its strong mood and documentary style. The lead stars are top-notch artists of 70's Italian subgeneres, Lino Capolicchio (The house with the laughing windows), Macha Meril (Deep Red) and John Steiner (Shock, Tenebrae, Action, Tinto Brass's Caligula). I recommend you to have a peer to it. Dario