Tea with Mussolini

Tea with Mussolini is a 1999 AngloItalian semiautobiographical film directed by Franco Zeffirelli, scripted by John Mortimer, telling the story of young Italian boy Lucas upbringing by a circle of British and American women, before and during the Second World War.

One day when the ladies are in a restaurant for afternoon tea, it is vandalised by Fascists, reflecting the increasingly uncertain position of the expatriate community. Lady Hester, widow of Britains former ambassador to Italy, retains an admiring faith in Benito Mussolini Claudio Spadaro and takes it upon herself to visit him, receiving his insincere assurances of their safety, and proudly recounts her tea with Mussolini. But the political situation continues to deteriorate and the Scorpioni find their status and liberties diminishing. Lucas father decides that Italys future is with Germany rather than Britain and sends Luca to an Austrian boarding school.Five years later, Luca now played by Baird Wallace returns to Florence with the intention of using Elsas trust fund to study art. He finds that most British nationals are fleeing the country, anticipating Mussolinis declaration of war on Great Britain, and that Mary has moved in with Lady Hester and the other English holdouts. He arrives at the house just as they and Hesters ineffectual grandson Wilfred Paul Chequer, disguised as a young woman for his safety are being rounded up and put onto a transport truck, which he follows to the nearby Tuscan town of San Gimignano. Because the United States is not at war, Elsa and her American compatriot Georgie Rockwell Lily Tomlin, an openly lesbian archaeologist, remain free. Elsa uses Luca to deliver forged orders and funds to have the ladies moved from their distressingly barrackslike quarters to an upper class hotel. Believing that Mussolini himself issued the orders, Lady Hester is delighted, proudly brandishing the newspaper photo of her tea with Il Duce. ........

Source: Wikipedia