La lunga strada del ritorno

Alessandro Blasetti's documentary La lunga strada del ritorno is perhaps one of the earliest cases, at least on Italian television, of the systematic reutilization of library footage, in conjunction with purpose-made interviews, to create an auteur nonfiction film focused on historical memory. Broadcast in three parts in June 1962 on the second Italian TV channel (set up just a few months earlier as a vehicle for more original and experimental programs), La lunga strada del ritorno gathers, in fact, the accounts of Italian veterans of the Second World War, combining the story of the conflict with the experiences of the men at the front. To help him write the script, Blasetti turned to the poet Alfonso Gatto. La lunga strada del ritorno is the result of painstaking research work in Italian and foreign film archives, where Blasetti also went to look for not strictly war-related material. (Venice International Film Festival)