Arquivo

Rome, 2003, shortly before the U.S. troops invade Iraq. Poet and university professor Attilo de Giovanni lives in an "ivory tower", isolated from reality. His new anthology of poems The Tiger and the Snow has been well received by critics and by readers alike. The sensitive poet spends days and nights dreaming of Vittoria who, in real life, is not interested in him. The more he tries to win her, the more she rejects him. Vittoria is also a writer. She is working on the biography of Fuad, a famous Iraq poet who has lived in Paris for years, but who plans to return to Bagdad when the war is over. Attilo catches sight of him with Vittoria during a visit of the poet to Rome. Days later, Attilo receives a telephone call from Bagdad. It is Fuad to say Vittoria has been wounded in the first bombing raid by the Americans and the English, of Bagdad, and that she is dying. Attilo moves heaven and earth to try for a job with the Red Cross, to accompany the delegation to Iraq. He finds Vittoria alone in a hospital without the adequate equipment to treat her. Attilo refuses to lose hope and, when he can find no pharmacy intact in the ruins of the city, asks a chemist to prepare the medicines. But he is captured by the American soldiers. Actor and singer Tom Waits is included in the soundtrack with the song "You Can Never Hold Back Spring", composed with his usual partner Kathleen Brennan and nominated for the 2006 David di Donatello (the Italian Oscar) for Best Song.