Taviani brothers explore Caesar's brutality in prison documentary

Feb 11, 2012, 11:25 GMT

Berlin - Veteran Italian film-making brothers Paolo and Vittorio Taviani have attempted to explore the full brutal force of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar with a documentary on the production of the play in a prison.

The film premiered at the Berlin Film Festival Saturday.

'We felt like we were entering a new world,' Vittorio said at a press conference marking the launch of the film, Cesare Deve Morire (Caesar Must Die) in Berlin.

'We thought we were like foreigners but slowly we became used to them,' he said. 'We saw how as actors they wanted to show their lives. It is about the complexity of people's fate.'

In a career spanning more than five decades the brothers have directed more than 20 films.

This includes Padre Padrone, which won the Cannes Film Festival's coveted Golden Palm in 1977. About a decade later, they were awarded a Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival for their life's work.

Now they are in Berlin at the 62nd Film Festival, competing with 17 other films for the Berlinale's Golden Bear for best picture.

All the actors in the play are inmates at Rome's maximum security prison Rebibbia. The Taviani brothers spent six months following the prisoners' rehearsals for the play with the inmates-turned-actors speaking in their own dialect.

'We started to like each other,' said Vittorio. 'We almost became friends. We felt sorry for them because they suffer for what they have done.'

Paolo said, 'When the actor playing Brutus killed Caesar he really feels the pain more than normal actors. He could feel his own past. These actors could communicate in a very emotional way.'

The brothers take turns in directing scenes with Vittorio saying the other is not allowed to speak while one is directing. 'Of course we then share the money,' said Vittorio.