Battlefield, Gianni Amelio’s film set in a field hospital during WWI, tells the story of the problematic relationship of two doctors dealing with wounded soldiers coming from the front.
The cast includes Alessandro Borghi (Dr. Stefano Zorzi), Gabriel Montesi (Dr. Giulio Farradi), with Federica Rosellini as the nurse Anna with whom both doctors are in love. With their differing approaches, they treat the physical wounds and manage the lies of their patients, many are prepared to wound themselves to avoid returning to the front. The situation becomes even more complicated when the scourge of war is hit by another: the great Spanish flu epidemic.
Filming began in October 2023 in the Trentino municipality of Rovereto, in Palazzo Betta Grillo and the former Manifattura Tabacchi in Borgo Sacco. Other locations included fort Cherle, near Folgaria, fort Busa Granda (Levico) and Bleggio (Ponte Arche) for the wedding scene.
Locations in Friuli included the cities of Udine, Illegio, Venzone, Codroipo (Villa Manin), Cormons and Gorizia. Twenty professionals from Friuli and 520 extras were employed in the local production, for a total of 12 days of filming in the area.
In May 2024, the crew filmed in the railway station on the Sinalunga-Arezzo line in Pescaiola, on the outskirts of Arezzo, Tuscany.
Filming also took place in Rome at the former hospital Forlanini and at forte Bravetta, for scenes of patients with the Spanish flu. The initial sequence, where soldiers rummage through piles of bodies, and the fire scene were filmed in a quarry near Monterosi (Viterbo).
Battlefield, Gianni Amelio’s film set in a field hospital during WWI, tells the story of the problematic relationship of two doctors dealing with wounded soldiers coming from the front.
The cast includes Alessandro Borghi (Dr. Stefano Zorzi), Gabriel Montesi (Dr. Giulio Farradi), with Federica Rosellini as the nurse Anna with whom both doctors are in love. With their differing approaches, they treat the physical wounds and manage the lies of their patients, many are prepared to wound themselves to avoid returning to the front. The situation becomes even more complicated when the scourge of war is hit by another: the great Spanish flu epidemic.
Filming began in October 2023 in the Trentino municipality of Rovereto, in Palazzo Betta Grillo and the former Manifattura Tabacchi in Borgo Sacco. Other locations included fort Cherle, near Folgaria, fort Busa Granda (Levico) and Bleggio (Ponte Arche) for the wedding scene.
Locations in Friuli included the cities of Udine, Illegio, Venzone, Codroipo (Villa Manin), Cormons and Gorizia. Twenty professionals from Friuli and 520 extras were employed in the local production, for a total of 12 days of filming in the area.
In May 2024, the crew filmed in the railway station on the Sinalunga-Arezzo line in Pescaiola, on the outskirts of Arezzo, Tuscany.
Filming also took place in Rome at the former hospital Forlanini and at forte Bravetta, for scenes of patients with the Spanish flu. The initial sequence, where soldiers rummage through piles of bodies, and the fire scene were filmed in a quarry near Monterosi (Viterbo).
Copyright: 01 Distribution - ph: Claudio Iannone
Alessandro Borghi
Copyright: 01 Distribution - ph: Claudio Iannone
Gianni Amelio, Alessandro Borghi
Copyright: 01 Distribution - ph: Claudio Iannone
Copyright: 01 Distribution - ph: Claudio Iannone
Copyright: 01 Distribution - ph: Claudio Iannone
Copyright: 01 Distribution - ph: Claudio Iannone
Towards the end of WWI, two army doctors, childhood friends, are working in a military hospital which receives some of the most seriously wounded soldiers from the front on a daily basis. Many of their patients have self-inflicted wounds; they are pretenders, desperate to do anything to keep away from the fight. One of the two, Stefano – whose upper-middle-class father dreams of a future in politics for him – is obsessed with those who have inflicted their wounds, his doctor’s instinct part policeman’s rigor. The other, Giulio, is apparently more understanding and tolerant, he is also uncomfortable with the sight of blood and more inclined towards research, he would have liked to become a biologist. Anna, their university friend, pays for the fact that she is a woman. In those days, without an influential family, it was difficult to get a degree in medicine. But she tackles hard, voluntary work at the Red Cross with determination. Meanwhile, something strange happens among the patients: mysteriously many get worse. There could be someone purposely causing complications to the wounds to ensure that the soldiers are sent home, even crippled or mutilated, just as long as they do not return to battle. There is a saboteur inside the hospital, and Anna is the first to have suspicions. But on the front, just as the conflict is drawing to a close, an infection begins to spread, one that causes more damage than enemy weapons. Soon it reaches the civilian population...
