I used to think only pretentious deviants with spectacles lowered halfway down their noses liked foreign films. However, as I tried to catch up on a few Z's in a darkened Italian classroom, the film we were supposed to be watching had me somewhat transfixed. By the end of it, I had found a new favorite film. Mediterraneo, an Italian film and a 1991 Academy Award winner, is something worth seeing. Set in World War II, it follows a platoon filled with Italy's strangest soldiers on a mission to secure a Greek island settlement. Upon their arrival, however, they find the island's town empty. Between a broken radio and the bombing of their ship, the platoon is stranded. Suddenly confronted by the women and children of the town, the soldiers do their best to find a niche in the community. So what does a cut-off Italian platoon do on a botched four-month occupation assignment? Smoke lots of "not-tobacco," play soccer and paint - as we all would. The film follows the soldiers' feelings concerning Italy, donkeys and life in general. Rather than display such thoughts in long and uninteresting monologues, they come out in the strangest of scenes. For example, a Turkish trader comes by boat and offers them many non-tobacco smokeable products (in all likelihood, hashish). The scene that follows is profoundly hilarious. Among the references to The Odyssey that the stoned lieutenant makes, he alludes to the sacrament they smoked as "oblivion," a word that typified both them and the island: something beyond everything. Of course in the morning (while all the insanely high soldiers are sleeping), the Turk steals all their weapons and runs off. As one of the soldiers smokes the remains of the sacrament, he wryly observes, "If he stole everyone's weapons and all he left behind was this stuff [the hash], the world would be a better place." Finally, at the end of the war, the Brits find the Italians on the Greek island after being there for three years. Baffled to discover their one-time enemies are now their allies (Italy ended up divided but surrendered to the Allies), the Italian soldiers experience further disillusionment with their country. They face the very same life-threatening conundrum as those brave survivors of Oceanic flight 815: should they leave the island? The opinions vary, but in the end it becomes clear that the island remains their place at the edge of the world. Characterized by a distinctly outlandish but glorious humor, the film can be seen either as a profound existential work or just the series of shenanigans that occur when soldiers have nothing to conquer. Blessedly subtitled for all you non-Italian speakers, the film is so powerful it transcends any language barriers that might have otherwise been problematic.

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