A tale inspired by the life of twentieth-century Russian poet Osip Mandelstam recounts his criticism of the Stalin regime, the verbal distribution of his famous "Stalin Epigram" that led to his arrest, and his exile and death in a Siberian transit camp.

Aging journalist Jep Gambardella wanders the streets of Rome as he reflects upon the promise of his younger days when he wrote a succesful novel.

An elegy of exile and an epic immersion into the world of rural Italy during the Mussolini years, Francesco Rosi₂s sublime adaptation of the memoirs of the painter, physician, and political activist Carlo Levi brings a monument of twentieth-century autobiography to the screen with quiet grace and solemn beauty. Banished to a desolate southern town for his anti-Fascist views, the worldly Levi discovers an Italy he never knew existed.