Seven Beauties 1975

Pasqualino Frafuso, also known as Settebellezze, is a dandy and small-time hood in Naples during the Fascist era and World War II-era Italy. To defend his sister’s honor, he kills a pimp who had corrupted her, dismembers the corpse, and packs the parts into suitcases. After police catch him, he confesses but pleads insanity and is sentenced to 12 years in a psychiatric ward. Desperate for a way out, he volunteers for the Italian Army. He and a fellow recruit desert, but they are captured and sent to a German concentration camp.

In the camp, he tries to survive by offering sexual favors to the Commandant, Shirley Stoler. His plan works briefly, but the Commandant makes him a kapo in charge of his barracks. He must pick six men from his own group to be killed to save the rest. He ends up executing his former Army comrade and is responsible for the death of another prisoner, a Spanish anarchist, Pedro.

At war’s end, Pasqualino returns to Naples to find that his seven sisters, his fiancée, and even his mother have all survived by turning to prostitution. Despite the grim reversal, he remains unfazed and insists on marrying his fiancée as soon as possible, setting the stage for a harsh, morally ambivalent reckoning with family, honor, and survival in a city scarred by conflict.