First work making up the so-called “Trilogy of the Po” and cinematographic debut of Carlo Mazzacurati, the protagonist is barrister Otello Morsiani (Michele Messeri), investigating on a series of obscure facts occurred in the Po delta area including real estate specualtions, illegal extractions and a mysterous murder. These facts involve a local businessman Tornova (Mario Adorf), owner of a chicken farm and also the local inhabitants, mutually bound by a mixture of connivence and silence. Encouraged by his honesty and his love for a girl who settled there to escape her past as an armed fight militant, the barrister will risk his life and sacrifice his friendships in order to find out the truth.

LOCATION The film was shot mostly in the southern Polesine area.
The facility where Tornov’s chicken farm is located and that plays a crucial role in the plot currently hosts the Museo della Bonifica di Ca’ Vendramin (along via Veneto in Porto Tolle).
The villa from which Morsiani and the two land surveyors are attacked with some rifle shots while they are surveying the area (at the same time the female protagonist is bathing with her son in a fountain that does not exist any more) is Ca’ Pisani, a hamlet close to Porto Viro.
The inn where Morsiani stays is located in Via Sant’Ilario d’Enza in Porto Tolle.

Third work by Luigi Magni devoted to the relationships between the people, the Pope’s power and the Roman aristocracy. The film is a historic fresco focusing on the end of the Roman Republic (1848-1849) and the resulting climate of instability and excitement. The protagonists are a group of heroic patriots: a Barnabite monk, against the temporal power of the Pope, a nobleman from Milan and a man of the people, who try to reach Venice together with Garibaldi’s army.

LOCATION Some sequences of the film were shot in Mesola and in Comacchio.
The inn where Cristina Arquati (Elena Sofia Ricci), who has come north to look for her beloved Giovanni Livraghi (Luca Barbareschi), stays and is told by a regular customer that Giovanni was arrested by the Austrians and taken to Bologna, is today the restaurant “Al Castello” in Mesola (Ferrara), namely in Piazza Umberto I.
The bridge of Comacchio in front of which the Austrians arrest the two patriots Giovanni Livraghi (Luca Barbareschi) and Ugo Bassi (Jacques Perrin) is the iconic Bridge of Trepponti in Comacchio.

The film, made of four episodes, depicts four different love stories seen through the eyes of a movie director (John Malkovich): a portray of the dramatic and inevitable incompleteness of any love relationship. The first story, set in the area of Ferrara, a draining pump technician, Silvano (Kim Rossi Stuart), and a young teacher, Carmen (Inès Sastre), meet in a guest house and fall in love but they will never make love because Silvano renounces passion, he prefers to extend the pleasure given by unfulfilled desire.

LOCATION The first episode of the film is entirely shot between Comacchio, Lido di Volano and Ferrara.
It is possible to recognize the Loggiato dei Cappuccini of the lagoon city, where the two protagonists meet and fall in love, and also the building currently home to the headquarters of the Po Delta Park, used by Antonioni as set for the sequences in the guesthouse.
The final sequence, where John Malkovich sits on a swing thinking about the love story between the two youngsters, was shot at the bathing establishment Bagno Jamaica at Lido di Volano, still existing today.

The plot unfolds in the Comacchio valleys and begins in a small restaurant for truck drivers managed by a family made of the young and sensual Mina, called by everybody Bambola, her mother and brother. After their mother’s death, the two siblings turn the restaurant in a pizza place thanks to the help of Ugo, a thirty-year-old bank employee in love with Bambola. Blind with jealousy for the woman, Ugo starts a fight and is killed by Settimio who is then imprisoned. Bambola and Flavio visit Settimio in prison and in the parlour get to know Furio, imprisoned for rape, who falls madly in love with the woman and takes her in a spiral of passion, violence and abuse.

LOCATION The film was shot between Comacchio, the Valli di Comacchio (Strada Foce) and Lido di Volano.
The outside of the prison where Settimio and Furio are, is in Via della Peschiera in Comacchio and is connected to the backyard of Palazzo Bellini (the courtyard and indoor sequences where shot instead at Regina Coeli in Roma): the shot is taken from the Trepponti.

Ten years after directing Notte italiana, Mazzacurati comes back to the Po area to tell the coming-of-age story of a boy.
Davide (Stefano Campi) lives in Turin with his brother and occasionally works as a car washer. After getting his A levels, he visits his uncle and aunt who live in the Po Delta. He falls in love with Patrizia (Patrizia Piccinini), an older girl, and forms a friendship with Alem (Semsudin Mujic), a Bosnian boy with a troublesome past. Patrizia leads a double life made of drug and a hidden love story with a local businessman involved in drug trafficking. As a consequence, the relationship with Davide becomes difficult and painful, while the friendship with Alem leads to a tragic adventure. Davide goes back to Turin as a grown-up.

LOCATION The film was mostly shot in the Comacchio valley.

At the point of her death, Romeo’s mother (Giuseppe Battiston), clothing dealer living in the outskirts of Comacchio, tells him that when she was young she sold her first-born to a riche family from Genoa. Romeo heads for Liguria region in order to find his brother who turns out to be an architect, Gustavo Torregiani (Emilio Solfrizzi). Once he hears the truth he leaves immediately for the Po Delta to find his roots. His whole life is put at stake: his job, his relationships with his wife Ines and with his older sister Agata (Licia Maglietta), an educated and independent woman, ehi, after a love disappointment, decides to join her brother. The isolated house at Lido di Volano becomes a meeting point for several characters whose stories and dreams will cross and merge in one big single plot.

LOCATION The film was partially shot in the areas of Comacchio and Lido di Volano
Romeo’s house is along the scenic Acciaioli route, near the Lido Volano, and overlooks the Bertuzzi valley.

Third work of the so-called “Trilogy of the Po”, La giusta distanza is a social thriller on racist prejudice set in the Polesine area, namely in a fictional village, Concadalbero, where live Hassan, a young Tunisia mechanic, well integrated and highly estimeed for his skills, and Giovanni, 18-year old doing his forst job as correspondant for a local newspaper. When Mara (Valentina Lodovini), a young and attractive teacher, comes there for a temporary replacecement assignment, the paths of the three main characters start to cross first in a climate of restlessness, then of passion and finally of tragedy. Giovanni will have to decide whether to keep the right distance or get involved and start investigating the lives of his fellow townspeople.

LOCATION The film was mostly shot in the southern Polesine area.
In Santa Giulia can still be seen the bridge made of boats featured in the sequence where Franco warns Giovanna about the chinese roundup; Giulia’s house is also not far from there. Hassan’s workshop and Giovanni’s house are located in Bacucco on the Po della Donzella.