Campo di Battaglia review – medicos face off in stately first world war hospital drama

Amelio is a 50-year veteran of Italian cinema and tackles the action with a robust, old-school efficiency. He mounts a cumbersome, well-acted drama in the wings of the first world war, shuttling from bed to bed to view the bloodied soldiers while clearing space for a lot of hushed conversations in dimly-lit rooms. Anna (Federica Rossellini), a pensive Red Cross nurse, suspects Giulio of being the near-mythic Holy Hand but assumes that Stefano never will. “He loves you too much,” she says, thereby setting us up for the friendship-breaking betrayal that surely lurks around the next darkened corner.