Genre: Romantic Comedy/Drama

Language: Italian with English Subtitles

Director: Roberto Benigni

Cast: Roberto Benigni, Jean Reno, Nicoletta Braschi, Tom Waits, Emilia Fox

Released: 2005

Duration: 113 Minutes

Rating: M contains low-level offensive language

Distribution: 20th Century Fox

Like an Iraq-war mirror image of ‘Life Is Beautiful’ actor-director Roberto Benigni's ‘The tiger and the snow’ replicates the successful structure and comic persona of his 1998 Oscar-winning film in a trippy fantasia about a poet who follows his love to hell and, in this happier ending, back.

The ‘The tiger and the snow’ tells the story of poet, Attilio De Giovanni (Roberto Benigni), madly in love with lyrics, but even more with Vittoria (Nicoletta Braschi), who is writing a book about Arab poet and friend Fuad (Jean Reno).   But his love is unrequited and so Attilio, an exuberant and extravagant man, endeavours to win over his belle in the most absurd and hilarious manner. Unfortunately things do not work out as he had planned, and through strange sentimental twists the two find themselves in Iraq right at the beginning of the 2003 Iraq war.

There, Attilio who does not speak a word of Arabic, is forced to fight his own personal battle against the hell of destruction, armed only with his poetry.

“In his eighth outing as star and director, Benigni shows no signs of weariness with a character he skillfully varies from film to film. The frantic laugh fest of his earlier work has given way to a more mature comedy able to incorporate serious themes within an actor's approach to heartfelt, emotion-based directing.”  Deborah Young, Variety