Lorenza Mazzetti was born in Rome in 1927, together with her twin sister Paola. When they remained orphans an aunt, the father’s sister Cesarina Mazzetti (known as Nina) decided to take them in, welcoming them to the beautiful estate at Rignano sull’Arno with her husband Robert Einstein, cousin of Albert Einstein, and their two daughters Annamaria and Luce. This led to a period of great happiness in this newly assembled family, until in 1944 two German officers arrived at the villa, looking specifically for Robert Einstein. Nina had the presence of mind to say that her husband was not at home, and then convinced him to flee into the forest.

When the Germans returned on 3 August 1944 and failed to find Robert, they killed his whole family in what is still known today as the Strage di Rignano: the victims were Cesarina, Annamaria and Luce. The Mazzetti twins were spared because they did not have the Einstein surname, but they witnessed the killing and were marked by this experience for the rest of their lives. Their uncle, who had been hiding in the woods, was overwhelmed by grief and committed suicide.

The most plausible reason behind the massacre was that Hitler wanted to indirectly strike out at the great scientist Albert Einstein, who had fled to America due to the rise of Nazism and had become a symbol of its opposition. 

After graduating from classical high school, in an attempt to distance herself from the terrible memory of the tragedy Lorenza Mazzetti moved to London, but from Italy her sister soon informed her that their legal guardian had squandered their inheritance and left them destitute. Lorenza thus began to work as a dishwasher and waitress. She discovered the Slade School of Fine Art of the University College London, but could not afford the tuition; for three days she slept with her drawings outside the entrance to the office of the school’s director, demanding a critical assessment. After being accepted as a student, one day she illegally obtained the means necessary to make a film she had dreamt of for some time, with the title K, based on Kafka’s Metamorphosis. It was a great success, astonishing the entire school; it was followed by another cult film, Together, and foreshadowed the creation of the “Free Cinema Movement” with the filmmakers Lindsay Anderson, Karel Reisz and Tony Richardson, in favour of an independent, “angry” cinema free of commercial constraints. 

During a stay in Italy to visit her sister, she was overwhelmed by atrocious memories and fell into deep depression, suffering from insomnia and recurring nightmares. The writing of Il cielo cade became a sort of therapy, and when it was published in 1962 the book won the Premio Viareggio, thanks to the enthusiasm of Cesare Zavattini and the help of Attilio Bertolucci.