La lunga notte del '43 (Long Night of 1943)

Ferrara, the final months of 1943. Pharmacist Barilari – a fascist from the very beginning, struck by paralysis after the March on Rome – looks out of his window at the city, ghostly and shrouded in fog. He observes the fascists attempting to reorganise the party, preparing retaliation and raids. He observes his wife Anna, young, unhappy, and likely searching for another love. But he might, perhaps, pretend not to have seen some of these glimpses of history and city life.
Vancini’s debut in narrative cinema won the Award for Best First Feature at the Venice International Film Festival in 1960.

The core of the film is Bassani’s story, and the event around which it unfolds occurred in Ferrara in November 1943, and I was an eyewitness. I saw with my own eyes the massacre perpetrated in the city centre. I was a young student then, and in the morning, on my way to school, I found myself faced with all these dead bodies. Around this real event, Bassani invented characters and a story, and I grafted other elements onto it. Bassani accepted. He didn’t even want to be part of the screenplay, he never raised any objections to the film. La lunga notte del ’43 was given a contemporary ending because, at that moment, we felt we needed to focus on a moral and political lesson. We couldn’t keep making celebratory films; many years had passed since those days and it was time to start looking deeper into things and to acknowledge that there was a large segment of the Italian people who didn’t participate in the Resistance, who either stood by and watched, or even refused to participate without perhaps siding with the fascists, and some even siding with the fascists.

PRODUCTION 1:
Fondazione Cineteca di Bologna
via Riva di Reno 72
40122 Bologna, Italy
Tel: +39 0512194214
E-mail: cinetecadirezione@cineteca.bologna.it
Web: http://www.cinetecadibologna.it

PRODUCTION 2:
Compass Film,
via Luigi Settembrini 30
00195 Roma, Italy
Tel: +39 063211549
E-mail: compassfilm@hotmail.it

PRODUCTION AT THE TIME OF FILMING: 
​Ajace Film

CO-PRODUCTION AT THE TIME OF FILMING:
Euro International Film

LAB:
L’Immagine Ritrovata

WORLD SALES:
Compass Film - Libassi Lorena, Nicole and Stefano
via Luigi Settembrini 30
00195 Roma, Italy
Tel: +39 063211549
E-mail: compassfilm@hotmail.it

ITALIAN DISTRIBUTION:
Compass Film - Libassi Lorena, Nicole and Stefano
via Luigi Settembrini 30
00195 Roma, Italy
Tel: +39 063211549
E-mail: compassfilm@hotmail.it

PRESS OFFICE:
Andrea Ravagnan - Fondazione Cineteca di Bologna
Tel: +39 0512194833 / +39 3358300839
E-mail: andrea.ravagnan@cineteca.bologna.it