Gloria

Produced by the LUCE Institute in 1934 and directed by Roberto Omegna, (1876 – 1948), Gloria presents images of the First World War captured directly on the battlefield by civilian and military cameramen.

Omegna, regarded as one of the fathers of scientific and travel documentaries, assembled this visual material to create a faithful, harmonious account of the main phases of the conflict.

The director dwells above all on the anonymous faces of thousands of “boys of 1899” sent to the front at little more than eighteen years old. Faces before the assault, some resolute, some frightened; the tiredness after the effort of the encounter; the bodies of the fallen; the despair at the losses; the joy of victory; the sorrowful, resigned eyes of the prisoners…

The story of the nation at war in the most difficult test of its still short unified history.