Set in Rome between 1938 and 1943, the movie traces the extraordinary story of Elena Di Porto, a strong, independent, and courageous Roman Jewish woman who challenged the fascist regime to save many lives and marked the history of the Jewish ghetto of Rome during fascism and the Nazi occupation.
To be different takes courage: you risk being marginalized and punished. Rebels are the first to realize when something limits freedom, and they react, even alone. And that's what Elena does. She is a woman separated from her husband, who wears trousers, smokes, drinks, and plays billiards. For this reason, in the Jewish ghetto of Rome, they call her "Elena the Crazy", but she doesn’t care. She is arrested multiple times for getting into fights with the fascists who dominate the neighborhood. When the Nazis invade Rome, she joins the resistance and learns in advance about the roundup in the ghetto on October 16, 1943. She tries to warn the population, but how can they believe you when everyone thinks you’re crazy?