The description says there are six stories, and at the beginning, the casts are given for six stories, but I think I only saw four.
Besides being a film of completely separate stories with separate casts and situations, another thing that makes this film unusual is that ordinary, non-professional actors are cast along with professional actors. I have never heard of the professional actors in the cast, some with American names, and their acting was as mediocre as the non-professionals, so the blend worked in that respect. The script was bad, as one would expect from an early post-war Italian film, and each story ended with no resolution or discernable plot. All of these elements, combined with plot devices that didn't make any sense, made it difficult to sit through.
There are some some "harsh realities of war" depicted, as the description says, which comes from the director living through the war in Italy, instead of seeing it on newsreels or reading about it like American directors, whose pre-1990 films almost always ended well for the good guys. In spite of that aspect, I don't recommend this one.
Besides being a film of completely separate stories with separate casts and situations, another thing that makes this film unusual is that ordinary, non-professional actors are cast along with professional actors. I have never heard of the professional actors in the cast, some with American names, and their acting was as mediocre as the non-professionals, so the blend worked in that respect. The script was bad, as one would expect from an early post-war Italian film, and each story ended with no resolution or discernable plot. All of these elements, combined with plot devices that didn't make any sense, made it difficult to sit through.
There are some some "harsh realities of war" depicted, as the description says, which comes from the director living through the war in Italy, instead of seeing it on newsreels or reading about it like American directors, whose pre-1990 films almost always ended well for the good guys. In spite of that aspect, I don't recommend this one.