Ugo Falena was one of the main directors for Film d’Arte Italiana. After a long career in the theater – he was director of Teatro Argentina and for the Compagnia Stabile Romana – Falena then decided to devote himself to the cinema. He arrived at FAI in 1909 and would go on to make forty-two films in a wide variety of genres: from early costume dramas (La signora dalle camelie, 1909; Guglielmo Tell, 1911), followed by more modern cine-dramas (Dall’amore al disonore, 1912; La rinunzia, 1913), to comedies (Lo stratagemma di Stasià, 1914), pantomime (Il disinganno di Pierrot, 1915), and propaganda films (Per la Patria, 1915). The film was restored in 1989 by the Amsterdam Filmmuseum, from an original tinted nitrate positive print. This copy is 332 meters long, with Dutch subtitles. It was part of the Desmet collection.

Alessia Navantieri