29/10/2002 - A non-indulgent story of student life, Fortezza Bastiani, a small film by two young directors is the surprise performer at this weekend's box office

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It’s known that in most fights, it’s usually the third party that benefits. The third film to emerge victorious from the Italian battle between Pinocchio and Red Dragon is a rank outsider called Fortezza Bastiani by Michele Mellara and Alessandro Rossi. The film was released onto just two screens with a 14-and-over rating but despite this, it managed to take Euros 10.978 during its first weekend out, with a per-screen average of Euros 5.489.
Mellara and Rossi won the Solinas Screenwriting award in 1999 and after many years of experimental work on the stage, they made their film directorial debut with this story about student life in Bologna. The 7 students, all nearing the end of their academic life, share an apartment that they call “Fortezza Bastiani” (The Bastiani Fortress) in honour of Dino Buzzati’s Desert of the Tartars. They live in an untidy mess of books, flyers, dirty plates and musical instruments and share their experiences with each other while queuing at the university canteen, or preparing for weird exams, or getting royally drunk as they wait for the real world to throw them a line.
Mellara and Rossi were inspired by English films, especially Secrets and Lies by Mike Leigh, and their characters are bitter. The directors avoid giving into indulgence, be it with regards to the protagonists or the city of Bologna, where the story unfolds. A city, that according to Mellara and Rossi, “sleeps” and creates without conserving.

Read the Directors' interview.

(Translated from Italian)