Sunflower
1970
•
1h 47min
• Drama, War
Oscar® winner, Sophia Loren (Two Women) and award-winning Marcello Mastroianni (Dolce Vita, 8 ½) are newlyweds separated by war who never give up on one another despite almost impossible odds. Mastroianni is the soldier left to die in the snow at the Russian front as of WWII ends. Loren is his bride who, refusing to believe that her ‘Missing In Action’ husband is dead, travels to the sunflower plains of Ukraine - seemingly to end of the earth, in by-then postwar Russia - to search for the man she vowed she would never abandon. Produced by Loren’s husband, Carlo Ponti of Doctor Zhivago fame, Sunflower recalls Zhivago with its rich, wide-vista production of this heartfelt drama of war-torn lovers. Underpinned by Mancini’s Oscar-nominated rousing score and magnificently directed by one of Italy’s greatest filmmaker, Vittorio De Sica (Bicycle Thieves, Two Women), who taps into his Neorealist roots to depict the human tragedy of war-displaced persons as seen through the heroic determination of Loren’s character.
