Mino was the eighth ZDF-Weihnachtsserie (), and aired in 1986. The series was broadcast in Germany on ZDF, and consisted of 6 episodes. Broadcasting in Germany began on December 25, 1986. The series was also broadcast in Italy, and consisted of 4 episodes. Broadcasting in Italy began on December 28, 1986. The series was an Italian-German co-production. It was inspired by the Italian novel The little Alpino by Salvator Gotta.
Plot
Episodes 1 & 2
1914: Giacomino "Mino" Rasi is the ten-year-old son of a Milan university mathematics professor. His family is friends with the aristocratic Austrian consul Karl Stolz and his much younger wife Freda. In August 1914 the Rasi family travels to Austria to visit the Stolz family. World War I has already broken out, but the spirit is upbeat and both families spend a happy time. That Italy, a member of the Triple Alliance, has remained neutral at the outbreak of the war causes a slight alteration between Karl and Minos father.
For the Christmas holidays Minos family goes skiing to the Great Saint Bernard Pass in the Aosta Valley. They spend Christmas at the Great Saint Bernard Hospice and the next day set out on ski to Courmayeur. But they are buried by a massive avalanche. Mino is found by Pin the Saint Bernard dog of the young Italian smuggler Rico, who takes Mino to his and his older brothers house. The next day they search for his parents but find only his mothers scarf.
1915: Assuming his parents are dead, Mino stays with Rico and his brother Bastiano. Unbeknown to Mino his parents have survived and in May his father returns to look amid the melting snow for his sons body. His search is unsuccessful and he returns to Milan. In the meantime Italy has declared war on Austria and Rico is called up to fight. Bastiano tries to convinces his brother to flee to Switzerland, but Rico chooses to go with all his friends for the "one-two months" of war.
Soon Mino decides to go to Argentina as his grandparents emigrated with his uncle to Cordoba. Ricos dog Pin follows Mino. Arriving in the city of Aosta they find Rico by chance. Rico is now an Alpino in the Aosta Alpini battalion. The battalions commanding officer Major Lupo sends Mino to the local orphanage. But Mino soon elopes to find Rico, who has departed with the battalion for the Isonzo front on the other side of Italy.
After some time on the road he arrives in a small town in the Friuli – Venezia Giulia region and meets a young girl Nena and her blind grandfather, who scrape by as street musicians. They take him in and Mino and Nena become quickly friends. At diner Mino talks about going to the front to find Rico. The old man tells Mino that war is brutal and no place for kids. He shows him his empty eye socks and tells a shaken Mino how he lost his eyes and all his friends in the Battle of Adwa. That night Mino and Nena discover an Austrian spy. The spy is captured, but Mino and Nena are shocked when they have to watch the spy and the spies wife being shot the next morning. Soon afterwards Mino and Pin leave to look for Rico once more.
He finally finds the Aosta battalion on the Dolomite front. Reluctantly Major Lupo allows Mino to stay with the battalion. The soldiers tailor a small uniform, including a Cappello Alpino, for Mino, who thus becomes a Little Alpino and the mascot of the battalion. In the meantime his father, who has become a captain in the 44° Artillery Regiment, once more returns to Aosta to look for his sons body and by chance learns from Bastiano that Mino lives and left some months earlier. Minos father sets out to find Rico, hoping that he may have information as to where Mino went. In the meantime the Aosta battalion has been ordered to conquer an Austrian mountain position. Mino stays behind, but as the battle noise moves away he and Pin go to the battlefield to look for him. In a poignant scene Mino walks up the eerily silent mountain, whose slopes are covered with hundreds of dead soldiers, to find Rico dying.
Major Lupo consoles Mino as good he can. As the battalion has been badly mauled it is taken out of the front. Soon afterwards Minos father comes to look for Rico, but only finds Ricos grave.