The Camp Followers 1965

In 1942, disheartened by the famine and disease in Athens, Lieutenant Martino, Tomas Milian, of the Italian Army, asks for a posting elsewhere. He finds himself paired with Sergeant Castagnoli, Mario Adorf, and tasked with driving a lorry loaded with twelve prostitutes to various military postings across the country. This assignment feels far from war service, and Martino struggles to see how it could contribute to victory. A more senior voice, Major Alessi, Aleksandar Gavrić, joins them as a passenger, adding a volatile dynamic where authority can easily override compassion.

That night, the group finds a forked shelter in abandoned railway carriages, and the two soldiers begin forming uneasy connections with their charges. The pragmatic Castagnoli teams up with the older, more worldly Ebe, Valeria Moriconi. Martino finds himself drawn to the forthright Eftikia, Marie Laforêt, whose clear-eyed views on life challenge his own outlook. Yet it is the gentle Elenitza, Anna Karina, who quietly draws his attention, hoping to avoid trouble and keep things peaceful.

Early the next day, a convoy of Blackshirts passes, and their leader, a veteran of the war in Spain, asks for one of the girls. The journey keeps rolling, but tragedy soon follows: the group encounters the remains of a Blackshirt lorry and its prostitute, all killed by Partisans. Alessi reacts with rage, clinging to a deluded sense of justice and vowing revenge.

Moments later, their own lorry is ambushed and goes up in flames. The survivors haul the wounded to an abandoned cottage; there the deteriorating Alessi declares he will go for help. Realising his intention to escape, the wounded Castagnoli holds him at gunpoint. Meanwhile, Elenitza fights for her life, and in a brutal, public moment Alessi shoots her dead. After nightfall, the survivors, carrying Castagnoli, stagger over the mountains and reach a village being emptied and burned by Blackshirts, who Alessi has now joined. They have captured some alleged partisans, whom they shoot, blurring the line between soldiers and oppressors.

In the end, Martino manages to get Castagnoli into a military hospital, where Ebe provides care, and to deliver the last of the prostitutes to safety. After what she has witnessed, Eftikia can no longer bear the thought of sleeping with Italians but makes one last exception for Martino. After a night together, she walks off into the mountains to join the partisans. Martino is left alone again, without purpose and even more disillusioned.