Places "Cefalonia" - San Vito Lo Capo
In the trap of the Secco of San Vito Lo Capo many scenes of the film “Cefalonia” were shot.
Cefalonia is a film by Riccardo Milani with Luca Zingaretti, Luisa Ranieri, Corrado Fortuna, Jasmine Trinca, laudio Amendola, Claudio Gioè and Roberto De Francesco, based on a real event.
The film tells one of the most dramatic pages in history. Italian of the twentieth century: on 8 September 1943, General Badoglio announced on the radio the news of the armistice with the Anglo-American military forces. The Italian army is in disarray. The Acqui division, stationed in the Greek islands of Kefalonia and Corfu, with 525 officers and 11,000 soldiers faces a terrible crossroads either to hand over their weapons and surrender to the Nazi army or fight to the last, knowing from the beginning of not being able to rely on any outside help. After a first moment of doubt, General Gandin, not having received directives from the government of Rome, asks his men to choose by means of a referendum. Officers and soldiers overwhelmingly ask not to give up. Grab their weapons, they face the Nazi army.
The protagonist of the film "Cefalonia" is the sergeant Saverio who attends and participates in all the main events, the joy of the Italian troops for the armistice, the decision to resist with arms the intimations of the Germans, the fighting, the massacre of the officers taken prisoner, the resistance, in the following months, of the surviving soldiers, the withdrawal of the German troops. Saverio will return to Italy with the woman he loves, who like him survived all the tragic events.
Sicily was chosen for the setting of the film, the real Kefalonia was in fact destroyed by the earthquake. Filming took place largely at the Tonnara del Secco in San Vito Lo Capo. The Monte Cofano di Custonaci oriented nature reserve, the Zingaro nature reserve, the Ettore and Infersa salt pans of Marsala, the ruins of Poggioreale and the Port of Castellammare del Golfo in particular appear.
In particular the trap of the Secco di San Vito the Caponel film is a barracks, where the Acqui division is based. Inside the Tonnara del Secco several soldiers from the Italian headquarters are killed.
