A new World War 2 film called Vermiglio, which won the Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize at the 2024 Venice Film Festival, is arriving in UK cinemas this weekend.

Not only that, but the critically acclaimed drama is Italy’s official selection for Best International Feature Film at the 2025 Oscars.

Written and directed by Maura Delpero, the film’s synopsis reads: “In 1944, in a mountain village high up in the Italian Alps, war looms as a distant but constant threat. Cesare Graziadei (Tommaso Ragno), the local schoolmaster and his wife Adele (Roberta Rovelli) have eight living children including Lucia (Martina Scrinzi), Ada (Rachele Potrich), and Flavia (Anna Thaler).”

The synopsis adds: “The arrival of Pietro (Giuseppe De Domenico), a Sicilian soldier who has deserted from his unit, disrupts the dynamics of Cesare’s family, changing them forever. During the four seasons marking the end of World War II, Pietro and Lucia, the eldest daughter, are instantly drawn to each other leading to an unexpected fate. As the world emerges from tragedy, the family will face its own.

“Vermiglio is a story of children and adults, deaths, births, disappointments and rebirths as each new season waxes and wanes. This sweeping, yet intimate, family chronicle was inspired by Delporo’s personal and family recollections of the house and community where her father grew up and became a box-office sensation when it opened in Italy in September, becoming the top Italian independent film of 2024, outperforming Luca Guadagnino's Bones and All and Alice Rohrwacher's La Chimera.”

Vermiglio is released in UK cinemas this Friday.