Behind Enemy Lines: The Untold Stories of Italy’s Female Warriors Who Sabotaged the Nazis
Anita was in Reggio Emilia, which is a small city, but I went and followed the paths that she took when she was in the mountains. They found the old paths and cleared them out and people can take days-long hikes on the same paths.
Those two moments were the most amazing of my research, where I really felt I was stepping in their footsteps. You’re in the mountains, and they’re sleeping there and it’s winter and you can’t even light a fire. That was so powerful.
And then when I was in Rome, I pictured Carla hiding in the shadows. Rome is one of those places where history is layered on top of itself. At the site of the Via Rosella attack there are still the pock marks. There was a conscious decision to not fill those in, to have them be a subtle reminder of the guerilla warfare in Rome.