THE TIGER AND THE SNOW
aka LA TIGRE E LA NEVE

Year: 2005
USA: Strand Releasing
Cast: Roberto Benigni, Nicoletta Braschi, Jean Reno, Tom Waits, Emilia Fox, Gianfranco Varetto, Giuseppe Battiston, Lucia Poli, Chiara Pirri, Anna Pirri, Andrea Renzi, Abdelhafid Metalsi, Amid Farid, Francesca Cutolo, Franco Barbero, Mariella Valentini, Simone Carella, Franco Mescolini, Susanna Marcomeni, Francesco De Vito, Daniele Miglio, Enrico Iannello, Enrico Innocenti Bardazzi, Simone Gandolfo, Ida Grieco, Rosa Maria Matteucci, Stefania Frangipani, Donato Castellaneta, Wahida Dridi, Abdelkader Mokdad, Israel Oyelumade Aduramo, Steven Lloyd Beckingham, David Tristan Birkin, Alexis Conran, Derek Hagen, Noah Lee Margetts, Jeffrey Gordon Pedersen, Jahvone Prince, Martin Sherman, Peter Bradley Swander, Mohamed Malek Bchatnia, Mohmed Hedi Bahri, Laarbi Kmiri, Ahmed Ben Massoud, Mark William MC Kerracher, Adel Rabah, Feriel RadaouI
Director: Roberto Benigni
Country: Italy
Language: Arabic / English / Italian (English subtitles)
USA: 115 mins
USA Release Date: 29 December 2006 (Limited Release - New York and Los Angeles)
US Distributor

Synopsis

Rome: 2003 before the war in Iraq

Attilio, a poet and a lecturer in poetry at the University for Foreigners in Rome, lives entirely in his own world. He has a certain literary reputation; he has recently published his latest collection of verse, The Tiger and the Snow that has been well received by both critics and the poetry-reading public.

Current events scarcely touch him and at night he dreams only of the woman he longs to marry, Vittoria, but in reality she is thoroughly annoyed by his constant attentions and even follows her around. Vittoria is currently writing a biography on a leading Iraqi poet living in Paris who is now preparing to return to his home in Baghdad if war breaks out. Vittoria and Attilio briefly meet him in Rome.

Out of the blue Attilio receives a call from the Iraqi poet who returned to Baghdad along with Vittoria intent on finishing her biography. But Vittoria has been severely injured and close to death. Attilio doesn't hesitate for a second and manages to get to Iraq that very day, muscling in on a Red Cross delegation. Through sheer determination he finds the hospital where Vittoria has been taken. Unconscious and more dead than alive, Vittoria needs a specialist drug to give her any chance of survival but the hospital is barely functioning.

Miraculously finding the medication to save Vittoria he then secretly hides her in the hospital away from the bombs falling down around them. However when Vittoria does at last regain consciousness, Attilio is no longer with her, he has been captured by American troops suspected of being an enemy soldier...