The Sydney Italian Cultural Institute is taking part in the Jewish International Film Festival by screening the film “Syndrome K”, a 2019 Italy/USA co-production by American director Stephen Edwards.
This moving documentary tells a true, little-known story that took place in Rome during the Nazi occupation in 1943-44. Three courageous Italian doctors saved the lives of a number of Jews by persuading the Nazis that some patients admitted to their hospital – the Fatebenefratelli on Tiber Island, very close to the Vatican – had been infected by a deadly disease called Syndrome K. The disease, which ironically ended up saving many lives, never existed.
The documentary includes interviews with the main characters or their descendants, including Doctor Adriano Ossicini and Pietro Borromeo, son of the head physician at the hospital. Film critic and cinematography expert Jane Mills of the University of Sydney will introduce the film at the Cinema Ritz in Randwick.
