Balordi (2005)

The heart of the enchanting Tuscany landscape is home to one of the best guarded prisons in Italy. This fortress in Volterra is also backdrop for the performance of Bertolt Brecht's «Dreigroschenoper», played by the inmates themselves. These tattooed, muscle packed men exhibit a completely different side of themselves as they run around the theatre like puppies. For quite some time, it seems as if we are watching two different documentaries: one about hard prison life, and the other about frolicsome actors in eccentric plumage. But gradually the two melt together: Meanwhile, we learn more about the background. One prisoner already had a gun when he was a fourteen-year-old boy in the slums of Palermo. Another always dreamt of joining the Mafia or becoming a doctor. Now that they are all in the same boat, these former street kids have combined forces. When prisoner Nicola, condemned for murder, performs Mackie Messer, he reinvents Brecht - and himself too.