Life is Beautiful

Life is Beautiful (La vita e bella) is a 1997 Italian comedy-drama directed by and starring Roberto Benigni. Benigni’s character is an Italian Jewish father in a family consisting of his wife and small son. In the 1940s they are rounded up and sent to a concentration camp. There the father, in order to hide the reality of their situation from their son and to somehow survive, pretends that their whole experience is a game and that at the end of the game the son, if he succeeds will win a tank.

It is not easy to mix the Holocaust with humor and some criticism of the film highlights that conundrum. It also seems to sidestep politics in favor of human ingenuity. However, the urge to survive in the most terrible of circumstances plays out in the film as the most important imperative.

When
Aug 1st, 2019 11:00 am
Location
Teatro Santa Ana
La Biblioteca Publica, Reloj 50A, Centro
San Miguel de Allende, GUA
Mexico
Events
Blurb Film
Co-sponsor
Speakers
Fee 70 Pesos

Upcoming Events

Monday, October 20, 2025 - 1:30pm
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Bruce Hobson & Meizhu Lui
Location:
La Biblioteca, Teatro Santa Ana, Insurgentes 25, Centro, San Miguel de Allende

Co-founders of the Mexico Solidarity Project, Bruce Hobson and Meizhu Lui will speak on why North American progressives should understand why Mexico is critical to advancing a vision of socialism and multiracial democracy in the United States.

 

Wednesday, October 22, 2025 - 12:00pm
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Organized by The Reentry Resource Program

You are invited to join a discussion with filmmaker Santiago Esteinou and Cesar Fierro about the new documentaryThe Freedom of Fierro.

César Fierro has just become a free man, and he needs to rebuild his life after being wrongly sentenced to death in Texas. César spent 40 years in prison before being released... Read more

Monday, November 3, 2025 - 1:30pm
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Joe Belden
Location:
La Biblioteca, Sala Quezal, Insurgentes 25, Centro, San Miguel de Allende
This mostly forgotten war led to Mexico losing over half its territory and the United States expanding to the Pacific. The lecture examines the political and economic background of the conflict, what led to it, and the roles of such factors as Texas annexation in 1845, slavery, racism, the Democratic and Whig parties, and Manifest... Read more