Working with children is one of the harder tests of filmmaking, so Antonio and Andrea Frazzi must have known that making The Sky Is Falling would be a challenge.

Penny (Veronica Niccolai) and her sister Baby (Lara Campoli) are left orphaned in wartime Italy and go to live in rural Tuscany with their aunt, Katchen (Isabella Rossellini). Katchen is married to a German Jew, Wilhelm Einstein (Jeroen Krabbè). Their large house is given over to a group of refugees, of one sort or another, including Mr. Pitt (Paul Brooke), a passionate piano teacher.

The film is mostly shot from Penny's point of view and a substantial amount of time is given to the girls' relationships with the daughters of their hosts and the children of the local peasants. Hanging over them, like thunder clouds, is the ongoing war and the delicate situation in which the household finds itself, as its occupants attempt to maintain their obscurity with the collusion of the community. Eventually, the war protrudes into this rural idyll, with devastating consequences.

The film falls down by relying too heavily on the limited talents of a young cast and not providing them with a substantial enough script. Niccolai and Campoli portray emotion well, but are not given the material to provide their characters with any sense of development.

Filming from Penny's point of view is reminiscent of the confusion and fear of childhood, but allows only glimpses of the adult interactions, which seem more vital to the story. Rossellini's devoted wife and mother is strong, but under huge pressure, and Krabbè creates an immensely complex man from relatively thin pickings.

In the end, the story of Penny and Baby is simply too weak to hold our attention and we are left resenting their intrusion into what seems to be a far more interesting story that happens almost entirely in the background of the film.