Captain Corelli's Mandolin is a 2001 epic war film directed by John Madden and based on Louis de Bernières' 1994 novel of the same name. It stars Nicolas Cage and Penélope Cruz. The film is dedicated to the thousands of Italian soldiers executed by German forces on Cephalonia in September 1943 and to the people of Cephallonia who were killed in the post-war earthquake.