When private Ugo Giannini finds himself all alone in the middle of the infamous D-Day invasion, he hides in a ditch and starts drawing what’s around him. Ugo is the only person known to have drawn during the first assault wave on bloody Omaha Beach.

When U.S. troops finally catch up to Ugo, he picks up his rifle and fights. Ugo is on or near the front lines for the next 244 days.

Ugo survives World War II without a scratch but stoically and silently suffers through a life time of PTSD as a reclusive painter.

Ugo rarely shows his work to anyone. It is art for arts sake. It is art for Ugo's sake.

And quietly, Ugo becomes a master contemporary artist.

When Ugo dies he is in the middle of a series of paintings dedicated to his war experience, a project that was finally bringing him some solace. It’s only then, that his wife Maxine discovers a treasure trove of art and personal archives; a bow tied stack of Ugo’s war correspondence, war photos, war drawings and hundreds of contemporary paintings he had rolled up or hidden away in drawers.

This film is the fulfillment of Ugo's dying dream - telling his story through the eyes of the common soldier.

“This is an important film for all generations."

• Dorothea de la Houssaye, Chairwoman of The Normandy Institute

"I was astonished to discover that he possessed an extraordinarily rare talent for written communication, one that effectively evoked the sights and sounds of war as they actually were experienced by the men who fought it.”