Captain Corelli's Mandolin

An Italian artillery officer billeted on the Greek island of Cephalonia falls in love with a local doctor's daughter during the occupation. Their romance is shattered when Italy's surrender leads to a brutal German massacre of the Italian garrison.

After Italy's September 1943 armistice, German forces on Cephalonia executed thousands of surrendered Italian soldiers of the Acqui Division in one of the war's worst atrocities against fellow Axis troops.

Based on Louis de Bernières' novel; the central romance is fictional but the Cephalonia massacre depicted is a documented historical atrocity.

With the British Expeditionary Force and French units cut off against the Channel, the Royal Navy and hundreds of civilian craft lifted the trapped armies off the beaches and mole at Dunkirk.

A German halt order and stubborn rearguard actions at Calais and along the Lys bought time. Over nine days roughly 338,000 British and Allied troops were evacuated, though nearly all heavy equipment was abandoned.

Directed by John Madden

Cast: Nicolas Cage, Penélope Cruz, John Hurt, Christian Bale

Positioned at 1941–September 1943 within the Axis occupation of Greece phase of the war, as part of the Occupation of Cephalonia. This is entry 37 of 150 in the chronological archive.

• Cephalonia
• Italian occupation
• massacre
• romance
• Greece

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  Mediterraneo

  1941–September 1943

• 

  From Here to Eternity

  Summer 1941 – 7 December 1941

• 

  Casablanca

  December 1941

• 

  Pearl Harbor

  7 December 1941 – 18 April 1942

• 

  Life Is Beautiful

  1939–1945

• 

  In Which We Serve

  1939–May 1941