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Released
2005 · FILM

Balordi

Directed by
Runtime
80 min
Documentary

Synopsis

The heart of the enchanting Tuscany landscape is home to one of the best guarded prisons in Italy. This fortress in Volterra is also backdrop for the performance of Bertolt Brecht's «Dreigroschenoper», played by the inmates themselves. These tattooed, muscle packed men exhibit a completely different side of themselves as they run around the theatre like puppies. For quite some time, it seems as if we are watching two different documentaries: one about hard prison life, and the other about frolicsome actors in eccentric plumage. But gradually the two melt together: Meanwhile, we learn more about the background. One prisoner already had a gun when he was a fourteen-year-old boy in the slums of Palermo. Another always dreamt of joining the Mafia or becoming a doctor. Now that they are all in the same boat, these former street kids have combined forces. When prisoner Nicola, condemned for murder, performs Mackie Messer, he reinvents Brecht - and himself too.

Credits

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Principal cast & crew: 1

These are the principals we have on file — the full crew ran to the hundreds. Every film this size was made by far more hands than any credits list ever names.

Why a floor?

This is a minimum, not a total. We only count the credits we’ve captured so far, and coverage is uneven — a blockbuster might show a few hundred names while another of the same size shows a couple dozen. The real crews all ran into the thousands. The number here only grows as full credits are enriched — so we frame it as a floor, never a headcount.

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