''Time to Kill'' ( it, Tempo di uccidere) is a

1989 File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress Street Viaduct, Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxo ...

Italian drama film starring

Nicolas Cage Nicolas Kim Coppola (born January 7, 1964), known professionally as Nicolas Cage, is an American actor and film producer. Born into the Coppola family, he is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Screen Actors Gu ...

, and Italian actors

Ricky Tognazzi Ricky Tognazzi (born Riccardo Tognazzi; ; 1 May 1955) is an Italian actor and film director. He has appeared in 50 films and television shows since 1963. His film '' The Escort'' was entered into the 1993 Cannes Film Festival. In 1991, he won t ...

and

Giancarlo Giannini Giancarlo Giannini (born 1 August 1942) is an Italian actor and voice actor. He won the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor for his performance in ''Love and Anarchy'' (1973) and received an Academy Award nomination for ''Seven Beauties' ...

. It is directed by

Giuliano Montaldo Giuliano Montaldo (born 22 February 1930) is an Italian film director. Biography While he was still a young student, Montaldo was recruited by the director Carlo Lizzani for the role of leading actor in the film ''Achtung! Banditi!'' (1951). ...

. The film is set in 1936, when

Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...

was Was or WAS may refer to: * ''Was'', a past-tense form of the English copular verb ''to be'' People * David Was (born c. 1952), the stage name of multi-instrumentalist and songwriter David Weiss * Don Was (born 1952), the stage name of bass guita ...

under Italian invasion, and was filmed in

Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and Mozam ...

. It is based on the novel with the same name written by

Ennio Flaiano Ennio Flaiano (5 March 1910 – 20 November 1972) was an Italian screenwriter, playwright, novelist, journalist, and drama critic. Best known for his work with Federico Fellini, Flaiano co-wrote ten screenplays with the Italian director, including ...

Plot

Lieutenant Silvestri suffers a toothache and decides to reach the nearest camp hospital earlier. En route to the camp his vehicle has an accident, and stops near a rock. Silvestri continues by walking, but no physician is found at the construction site. He is directed by a young man on an allegedly shorter route to the main camp, and on his way through the jungle he meets and rapes a young Ethiopian woman. She stays with him afterwards and he gives her his watch as a present. While taking refuge in a cave Silvestri shoots at a hyena, but the bullet ricochets and hits the woman. He buries her, trying to hide all traces, observing some Ethiopian people arriving nearby. Silvestri continues to the dentist at the main camp, where he tells the story to his superior, who decides to do nothing. Later his unit kills people in retribution of attacks of insurgents in the same area where all that happened and he recognizes the young man from the constructions site and some of the civilians he observed among the dead. He also meets Elias, wearing his pants, which he seems to have forgotten at the site and Johannes, Elias' father. He finally receives his permission for furlough and while celebrating with his friend and a superior Major he learns that the white turban of the girl means her being leprous. This and a festering wound on his hand lead him to believe he has leprosy. Elias visits him and he concludes him being Mariams brother and Johannes her father and his belief in enforced by Elias' reluctant answers. He seeks out a doctor with the cover-story of investigating for a book. The doctor explains to him from a book all the signs of lepra, which convinces and horrifies him even more. Upon the doctor insisting on examining his hand he gives the doctor a false name and even shoots at him, going to the ship going to Italy. As he tries to escape from Ethiopia to his wife in Italy, Silvestri evades and even steals from his former and finally hides at the father of the girl, Johannes. After living through a real or imagined illness, Johannes explains to him that Mariam wasn't ill and in exchange he tells her father how she really died, leading him also to the burial site. The movie switches back to the actual history of Ethiopia for some moments and Silvestris former friend tells the aftermath.

Cast

as Lt. Enrico Silvestri *

as Mario *

as Major (Cesare) * Patrice Flora Praxo as Mariam * Gianluca Favilla as Army Driver * Georges Claisse as Dr. Tiberi * Robert Liensol as Joannes

References

External links

* *{{rotten-tomatoes, time_to_kill_1989 1989 films Films directed by Giuliano Montaldo Films set in 1936 Films set in Ethiopia Films scored by Ennio Morricone 1989 drama films Films based on Italian novels Films about rape Films shot in Almería English-language Italian films 1980s English-language films English-language drama films