Comic drama about a town’s Catholic priest and communist mayor

The adventures of author Giovanni Guareschi’s hero cleric, Don Camillo – modelled after the real-life Roman Catholic priest, Second World War partisan and detainee of the concentration camps of Dachau and Mauthausen – Don Camillo Valota.

The fictional priest is one of the two main protagonists in Guareschi’s stories, set in the fictitious Po valley town of Mondo Piccolo, in northern Italy. The other is his nemesis, the communist town mayor, Peppone. In a true church-versus-politics encounter, Don Camillo – who has personal chats with God – clashes with the mayor over the funding of church roof repairs. He would far rather use the cash (raised from locals paying to view an ancient angel statue) to stockpile arms in preparation for much the talked-about revolution.