''Sentinels of Bronze'' (Italian: ''Sentinelle di bronzo'') is a 1937 Italian

war film War film is a film genre concerned with warfare, typically about navy, naval, air force, air, or army, land battles, with combat scenes central to the drama. It has been strongly associated with the 20th century. The fateful nature of battle s ...

directed by

Romolo Marcellini Romolo Marcellini (6 October 1910 – 3 June 1999) was an Italian film director and screenwriter. He directed 22 films between 1937 and 1969. Selected filmography * ''Stadium (film), Stadium'' (1934) * ''Sentinels of Bronze'' (1937) * ''Spe ...

and starring

Fosco Giachetti Fosco Giachetti (28 March 1900, in Sesto Fiorentino – 22 December 1974, in Rome) was an Italian actor. Fosco Giachetti was the protagonist of ''Lo squadrone bianco'' (1936), directed by Augusto Genina. He became the leading man in Fascist ...

Giovanni Grasso Giovanni Grasso (11 November 1888 – 30 April 1963) was an Italian stage and film actor. He appeared in more than 80 films between 1910 and 1955. He was born and died in Catania, Sicily, Italy. Born into a family of marionettists, he was ...

and Doris Duranti.

History

In the 1930s and 1940s, early Somali actors and film technicians co-operated with Italian crews to domestically produce Fascist films. Among the latter productions were ''Dub'aad'' and ''Sentinels of Bronze''. The movie "Sentinels of Bronze" (''Sentinelle di bronzo'') was awarded in the Festival di Venezia of 1937 as the "Best Italian colonial Film", winning an Italian Cup. The film is a propaganda work set in the days leading up to the outbreak of the

Second Italo-Ethiopian War The Second Italo-Ethiopian War, also referred to as the Second Italo-Abyssinian War, was a war of aggression waged by Fascist Italy, Italy against Ethiopian Empire, Ethiopia, which lasted from October 1935 to February 1937. In Ethiopia it is oft ...

Topic

In an incident modeled on the Wal Wal incident, an Italian outpost is besieged by large numbers of Abyssinian troops, but the garrison refuse to surrender. It was part of a series of films set in Italy's African Empire during the Fascist era.Palummbo; p.284

Cast

as Capitano Negri *

as Sergente Amato * Doris Duranti as Dahabò * Hassan Mohamed as Elmi * Mohamed Aghi Alì as Islam * Ali Ibrahim as Giama * Elmi Ahmed as Ras Sciferrà * Abdullah Ali as Hawariat

References

Bibliography

* Palumbo, Patrizia. ''A Place in the Sun: Africa in Italian Colonial Culture from Post-unification to the Present''. University of California Press, 2003.

External links

* {{Somalia italiana (Colonia) 1937 films Italian war films Italian black-and-white films 1937 war films 1930s Italian-language films Fascist propaganda Films directed by Romolo Marcellini Films set in 1935 Films set in Ethiopia Italian propaganda films