In 79 AD, the eruption of Mount Vesuvius buried the city and inhabitants of Pompeii under volcanic debris and preserved—until excavations in 1909—a vast fresco painted a century and a half earlier in a suburban villa. Populated by twenty-nine life-size figures against a vivid red background, this decoration, as famous as it is enigmatic, has given rise to several interpretations, which this film seeks to clarify with the help of documentary evidence.
No cast listed.