Captain Corelli's Mandolin

The Filming of the Movie Captain Corelli's Mandolin in Kefalonia: The beautiful island of Kefalonia constituted the main setting for the Hollywood film Captain Corelli's Mandolin. Its shooting started in 2000, under the guidance of John Madden, who also directed Shakespeare in Love.

This movie, starring Nicolas Cage and Penelope Cruz, revives the love story of the Italian officer Antonio Corelli (Nicolas Cage), who arrives in Kefalonia as the officer of the infantry division Acqui during the Italian occupation of the Ionian islands (Second World War). There he meets Pelagia (Penelope Cruz), a strong-willed woman and a relationship develops between them. The movie peaks with the Massacre of the Italian division by the Nazi troops, their former allies.

This war crime was unknown to Italy till the early 1980s, but it became widely known by the novel of Louis de Bernier, on which this same is based. On September 23rd, 1943, the Nazi troops executed 632 soldiers of the Italian Acqui Military Division, their former allies. Today the memorial of the Acqui Division is located close to Lassi.

The movie was shot in many locations of Kefalonia, showing the beauty of the island to the world. In particular, scenes were shot in the village of Sami, which was partly reconstructed to look like before the severe earthquake that hit the Ionian islands in 1953, in the fabulous Antisamos beach and in Fiscardo.