BLACK HOLIDAY (LA VILLEGGIATURA) is a powerful yet understated study of fascism in Mussolini's Italy as seen through the eyes of an anti-regime professor sent as punishment to a resort island for a "vacation" because he has refused to take an oath of loyalty to Mussolini, a requirement of all professors. The commissioner on the island quietly acquiesces to the fascists but secretly thinks them vulgar. The professor, however, like Carlo Levi in Christ STOPPED AT EBOLI, cannot compromise his ideals. This intelligent study about how individuals react to political oppression is well directed by Marco Leto and features Adalberto Maria Merli as the professor and Adolfo Celi as the prison commissioner.