The Secret of working together

Good movies with good talents and morals are very hard to come by nowadays and that implies going back to the oldies, classic movies of the thirties, forties, fifties and a few sixties and seventies. These are always fun to watch and (TCM) Turner Classic Movies serves these up daily with a brief introduction from the host and his guest for the night. It is always a delight to watch these with no commercial interruption, and on a big screen, it's almost like watching it in the theater.
A few days ago, they showed a very funny movie based in Italy towards the end of WW 11. I had watched this movie many years ago, but it was still as if I had never seen it before. But this time, it wasn't just the comedy part of it but the lesson in the plot---the strength of the human spirit and how far it can go when pooled together.

The people of the village of Santa Vittoria under their Mayor, Italo Bombolini, had to protect the one thing that held them together as a people --- WINE. The German troops who were withdrawing after Mussolini was hung were grabbing whatever they could on their way out, and word got to Santa Vittoria that they may visited, Bombolini got his men together and they decided quickly what to do about cooperative merchandise-----the wine, over one million bottles of it hidden in a large cellar must be hidden from the Germans, not all of it though, enough would be left to make it look like they were all there. Word spread and everybody got involved.

They got to work and finally moved all the wine, one bottle at a time up the winding hills to an old Roman cave. The wine moved through the hands of the villagers, one bottle passed from hand to hand up the winding hills to the cave.

When the Germans arrived, not even a revolver to Bombolini's head in private or in front of the whole village would make any of them reveal the secret. They were there, silent, going about their business, young, old, male, female, lovers, everybody, together in this resolve to save their means of livelihood and cooperative venture------the WINE.

At the end of it all, when the Germans were leaving in frustration, Bombolini offered the Captain a fine bottle of Santa Vittoria wine and assured him that there were more bottles from where that came, about one million of them. This was after firmly repeating that there was no wine left, even at gun point.

As the Captain angrily drove off, the sea of faces with firm lips broke into song and the whole village broke into jubilation and dancing led by their ebullient mayor Italo Bombolini and his previously enstranged wife. The End-------Lesson from this:


Working together yields incredible results for the benefit of all. Doing the opposite leaves people in a mess, the kind of which surrounds us (Ndi Igbo), both at home and in the diaspora.