the movie was not welcomed in this Country. One year later, as a reaction, Slovenia introduced a new national holiday, for the "Unification of the Slovenian Littoral with Slovenia". This time the Italian political elite criticized the "bad taste" of Slovenian officials. The movie was also used by Slovene and Croatian nationalistic movements, which claimed that the production was the "typical" Italian point of view about the problem. On the contrary, the movie collected only critics in Italy where it was defended just by its "political sponsor", the "Alleanza Nazionale" party, the real ideator of this politic propaganda action. The movie received widespread criticism from the Italian left wing of politics and Slovenian public and politicians, as it portrays historical events in the way they have been described for many decades by Italian Fascists. It has been accused of being a work of propaganda, presenting helpless and innocent Italians as victims of the mindless rage of Slavic peoples, without more than just vaguely hinting to the vastly larger atrocities committed by Fascists in Yugoslavia during World War II (see also Italian war crimes) and the oppression of the Slavic population by the Italian Fascist rule of the region (1922–1943). The movie, set in Istria (today in Croatia) had to be shot in Montenegro, because of opposition from Croatian authorities to a movie that portrayed them negatively. The portrayed scenery differs a lot from the real one. Most of the controversy is based on the good vs. evil depiction made of the conflict between Italians and Slavs, with many Italians being pictured as positive and many Slavs as evil, with the exceptions of Fabrizio, an Italian, Anja (an Italian's Slavic girlfriend) and all of the children. Supposed fascist rhetoric In some parts of the movie, there are quotes that could echo themes dear to the extreme right of Italy. The movie is very clear about claiming that ethnic cleansing was a planned policy of Tito's partisans. Another supposed quote is when Francesco berates Ettore for having stopped fighting the war: You coward! If you had not thrown away your rifle, if those like you had defended us, my parents would not be dead! This resembles the rhetoric of the Italian Social Republic, where a major point of propaganda was the "honor" of not surrendering to the Allies, but continuing to fight. When Francesco questions Ettore's authority to lead the group, Don