In 2002, France ended the Mitterand doctrine which protected Italian far-left terrorists who had fled to France from extradition. In the same year, the lawyer Marco Biagi was assassinated by the so-called New Red Brigades. In After the War, Annarita Zambrano weaves a fictional tale inspired by the two events around Marco, a former left-wing terrorist living in exile in France. While the changing political situation forces him to plan his escape to South America and abruptly end his teenage daughter’s »normal« everyday life, in a parallel narrative strand, the relatives who are left behind in Italy are also confronted with the violent past.

»We thought about making a film that would serve as a revisitation of this specific era and of the Mitterrand doctrine. A guilty party is a guilty party, but our country has never wanted to resolve the issue, and these people haven’t ever truly faced their responsibilities. The film is not intended as a judgement; it’s more of a commentary on guilt, humanity and politics. […] e guilt that falls onto those left behind is evident not just in classical culture – Antigone, for example – but also in Catholic culture, and it affects a lot of Italians, myself included.«
– Annarita Zambrano