A film about resistance to fascism and nazism may seem to be a political act, particularly today when we see tragic fantasies materializing and coming true and real. I did not intended to make a political film - I rather tried, as always, to achieve a poetic work. Obviously, my film has a political background and thus is a positive political action in its way. The structure of the film may too appear unusual : I used a technic which to my opinion, would better express the increasing of tension communicated to the audience by means of "visceral" suggestion - the facts actually already create this tension, as we can feel all along the film that tragedy is imminent. The use of flash-backs have not only an explanatory end, but also tend to break the rhythm in order to give the film a metrical progression, almost like a rhyme. The film is structured like an "upside-down" pyramid, its summit being the gleaming point of the candle on Athos' bedside, and the wide, alarming bottom - the end of the film. Gian Vittorio BALDI