I Cavalieri che fecero l'impresa (2001) a.k.a. The Knights of The Quest

Pupi Avati on the making of the film:

In a 33 -year old career like mine, comprising about 30 movies, this is surely the most ambitious film I've ever made, from many different angles. I want to say that here I used every means the cinema has to offer, this is 360° narrative, something that I certainly hadn't done before - anyone who is even superficially familiar with my movies will know - in many of my preceding films, which had more to with the psychology of relationships, with intimacy, with memories ( and that are, by the way, among the least costly movies in the past decades of Italian cinema, and maybe this is why they never made a loss; "La casa dalle finestre che ridono" was actually the least costly movie made in 1976).

In my latest film I took the greatest advantage of everything, the set, the cast, the script, the costumes, the music, the sound effects, and above all the mechanics of 'exercise' in battle…and I must thank my five actors for this because they all refused stand-ins!

And this is one of the most noble and exciting things that I have to thank them for, because on many occasions…if they came out unhurt, it's because somebody up there was looking after them; there was no choreography in these duels so they flung themselves headlong into them, probably counting on their quick reflexes, all being so young, and on…a lot of luck, because the swords that you saw in the film are authentic, built by a real sword-maker, so they're iron, heavy, dangerous, as are the arrows and all the other weapons. The final battle is the most striking example! I'm very proud of - perhaps I shouldn't say it but I will - this final sequence: I think it really is a reward to the work of 200 horsemen from Umbria.

We shot for five days with four cameras, and every time I see this final scene I feel proud, and it's not only because it is an emotional scene, but because it is expressive, because I believe that Italian cinema needs to do its duty and pay more attention to using cinema as a means of expression like other countries are doing.

Together with Franco Cardini, who helped me make sure it was historically coherent, I tried to make an adventurous movie and avoid psychological study of the characters - which in this case has to be inferred by their behavior - and limited their dialogues to what was essential. We follow the lives of these five characters from the start. They have absolutely no prospects and their present has nothing exceptional to offer, but they are suddenly handed a chance to fill their lives with a grand project (something I've never experienced myself); and even if in the end they hurl themselves to their own deaths - and there is great respect for the knightly saga here - I believe that their lives suddenly made sense, because these young men had received life's greatest gift, that of living a dream through till its end. Moreover, I tried to tell a story that has different levels of interpretation, a story that can be followed by an audience who has no knowledge of the world of knights, of the Middle Ages, the Templars, the great Breton sagas on the Graal or our own on the…Holy Shroud (these are, by the way, the themes that mostly seduced me in my childhood, still based on country culture, very close to knightly thoughts). At the same time, however, depending on the sensitivity and to the cultural level of whoever sees it, this movie lends itself to further thoughts, because it suggests - regarding this 'black hole' surrounding the mysterious disappearance of the Holy Shroud - one of the most likely hypotheses. Therefore it is a piece of work that experts in the field or simply lovers of this… subject might like, and that can somewhat enrich their knowledge, stimulate them regarding this 'legend'. And then, whoever might choose not to stop at 'the tale' could discover the theme of predestination, one of the themes tied to existence…that I love most: these five young men, in fact, are conscious of being part of a greater design.