Sunflower (1970) on Netflix

Plot summary

In Naples during the war, Giovanna falls for Antonio, a soldier about to be shipped to Africa. She proposes that they wed, which earns him a twelve-day pass and gives the pair a brief honeymoon. To keep him from the front they try a second trick: Antonio acts insane and lands in an asylum, until the doctors spot the pretense and force a choice between prosecution and volunteering for the Russian front. He volunteers, and reports later place him among the missing. Giovanna, who lives near Milan, holds to the belief that he survived. Years after the fighting ends, she sets out for the Soviet Union with his photograph, starting from the area of the winter battle in which he was lost.