The Man Who Will Come (2009) Plot Summary Explained

Martina stopped speaking as a psychological response to the trauma of losing her younger brother. The death profoundly affected her, causing her to withdraw into silence. This muteness makes her an outsider among her peers who ridicule her, but it also sharpens her observational abilities, allowing her to perceive details others miss throughout the film.

Foreshadowing: The film establishes her silence early, showing her watching family life with intense, silent attention that contrasts with the noisy world around her.

• martina
• silence
• trauma
• brother death
• psychological

Martina survived by chance. After escaping the initial SS assault and running into the woods, she was discovered and taken to the small church of Cerpiano, where dozens of others were already locked in. The soldiers carried out the massacre elsewhere, in cemeteries, churches, and farmhouses around the area, but somehow Martina inside the church was spared during the violence.

Foreshadowing: The film builds tension as Martina is discovered and dragged to the church, with the audience knowing the soldiers' intent.

• church
• cerpiano
• survive
• massacre
• ss

Martina's entire family was killed during the massacre. After she escaped to the woods and was later locked in the church, the SS systematically murdered old people, women, and children who had been rounded up. When Martina returned home afterward, she found only empty rooms and silence, her parents and the rest of the family were gone.

Foreshadowing: The film shows the roundup separating families and herding people into locations where the killings would occur.

• family
• parents
• massacre
• Marzabotto
• death

Martina hid her newborn brother in a basket in the woods near the family cottage. She did this before the SS arrived, creating a refuge in the forest to protect him from the danger she sensed approaching. This act demonstrates her protective instinct despite her silence, she took action to save the baby even as the violence unfolded around her.

Foreshadowing: Earlier scenes show Martina carefully tracking her mother's pregnancy with close attention, establishing her deep connection to the unborn child.

• baby
• brother
• hidden
• woods
• basket
• protect

Martina went to the rectory of Don Fornasini seeking shelter and safety after surviving the massacre. The rectory represented a place of refuge in the aftermath of the destruction, a religious sanctuary where she could care for her hidden baby brother. With her family gone and her home destroyed, the rectory became her only option for survival.

Foreshadowing: The presence of Don Fornasini in the village community was established through earlier scenes showing village life and rituals.

• rectory
• fornasini
• shelter
• sanctuary
• church

The lullaby acts as a symbolic bridge between Martina's trauma-induced silence and her recovery of voice. After caring for her brother in the aftermath of the massacre, she sings to him, a primal act of nurturing that breaks through the psychological barriers created by her grief and the horrors she witnessed. The act of expressing love through song releases the emotional suppression that had kept her mute.

Foreshadowing: The film builds to this moment as the culmination of Martina's transformation from silent observer to active participant in life.

• lullaby
• speech
• voice
• sing
• recover
• trauma

The film depicts the real-life Marzabotto massacre, one of the worst war crimes committed by Nazi forces in Italy during World War II. In September 1944, SS troops supported by German soldiers carried out a ferocious roundup in the Monte Sole area of the Apennines, killing hundreds of civilians, old people, women, and children, in what became known as the Monte Sole massacre.

Foreshadowing: The presence of German soldiers and partisans in the hills had been established throughout the film as the war encroached on village life.

• Marzabotto
• Monte Sole
• historical
• massacre
• WWII
• Nazi

The SS attacked the area as part of anti-partisan operations. The Apennines mountains harbored bands of Italian partisans fighting against Nazi occupation. The German forces conducted sweeps through civilian villages suspected of supporting or sheltering partisans, often targeting entire communities indiscriminately as a form of collective punishment and intimidation.

Foreshadowing: The film shows the increasing presence of both German soldiers and partisans in the hills throughout the story.

• SS
• attack
• partisan
• German
• village
• reason

Lena, Martina's mother, was killed during the Marzabotto massacre. She was among the old people, women, and children rounded up by the SS and murdered after being herded into cemeteries, churches, and farmhouses. Martina returns home to find the house empty, with her mother and the rest of the family gone.

Foreshadowing: The film shows Lena's pregnancy and care for the newborn in the days before the massacre, making her fate particularly poignant.

• Lena
• mother
• death
• killed
• massacre