Inspired by documented historical events at the Terezín concentration camp, the World War II film Melodies in the Forest (Le Melodie nel Bosco dei Faggi) starring Kevin Spacey has been boarded by sales agent Blue Eyes Film & Distribution.
Also starring in the film are John Savage (The Deer Hunter, Hair, Salvador, The Onion Field), Vincent Spano (Rumble Fish, Alive, Baby It’s You), Antonella Salvucci, Andrea Bruschi, Danny Kamensky, Riccardo Campione, Casper Kellndorfer, and Enzo Storico.
Two-time Academy Award winner Spacey (The Usual Suspects, American Beauty, Se7en, L.A. Confidential) stars as Petr Novotni, an 85-year-old world-renowned conductor whose buried wartime past violently resurfaces.
When celebrated conductor Petr Novotni is abducted during a routine walk, he recognises his captor as Yosef — a Jewish composer he encountered in Terezín in 1942. As investigators close in, Novotni’s children discover a hidden memoir that rewrites everything they believed about their father, forcing a reckoning with guilt, complicity, and the cost of survival.
The film draws on one of the most extraordinary cultural footnotes of the Second World War: the forced performances staged at the Terezín concentration camp, where the Nazis compelled Jewish artists and intellectuals to perform as part of a propaganda effort to deceive the International Red Cross. A central reference point is the landmark performance of Verdi’s Requiem, conducted by Rafael Schächter, an act of defiant artistry carried out under conditions of unimaginable terror. This documented history provides the moral and dramatic spine of the film.
“Blue Eyes have been with us from development through financing and casting. To bring this project to Cannes with their full support is exactly how we envisioned it,” added Roberto Lippolis, Director / Producer, Ventitre SRL
The company will introduce the project to international buyers at the Cannes Marché du Film, with delivery to buyers targeted for Q2 2027.
“This is an extraordinary story grounded in documented history, with a cast and creative team that can carry it to the widest possible audience. We’re bringing Melodies in the Forest to Cannes as one of our most significant acquisitions to date”, said Michael Cowan, Blue Eyes Film & Distribution
The film is written and directed by Roberto Lippolis, whose previous work includes The Cat & the Moon. Melodies in the Forest marks Lippolis’s most ambitious project to date, drawing on exhaustive historical research into the cultural life and exploitation of Terezín’s Jewish artistic community under Nazi occupation.
The project is produced by Ventitre SRL in co-production with Pink Flamingo Media Group. Principal photography is set to begin 5 October 2026 across Italy’s Marche region, including Offagna (Villa Montegallo), Osimo, Sirolo, and Macerata, as well as Terezín in the Czech Republic.
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