Where it was filmed 'Freaks Out'

Gabriele Mainetti’s second film, Freaks Out, which is set in Rome and surroundings, also shot in Viterbo, Abruzzo and Calabria.

The film opens in piazza San Lorenzo, a medieval neighbourhood in Viterbo which served as Rome’s historic centre for the occasion. Here the Mezzapiotta Circus is giving young and old alike moments of magical wonder. Palazzo dei Papi and its scenic loggia can be seen behind the tent when a bomb ends the show with destruction and death: special effects reduce the Cathedral of San Lorenzo and its 14^th century Gothic bell tower to ruins.

Having escaped the bombing by a whisker, the four circus performers – Matilde, Cencio, Fulvio, Mario – and their mentor Israel find shelter in earthquake-ruined Castelnuovo, a hamlet of San Pio delle Camere (province of L’Aquila), which provides the perfect setting for a war-torn location. Here they take the crucial decision to cross the ocean and start again, although their path promises to be tortuous.

A frame from the hill of Montecucco (fosso di Papa Leone), south east of Rome, provides a time stamp for the historical events of the story: in the distance are several buildings in Eur (the neighbourhood developed during the 20 years of Fascist rule). The Rationalist Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana (or Square Colosseum) stands out in particular, its construction was interrupted in 1943 (and would only be completed after the war), the year the film is set.

The historical centre of Rome where the four search for Israel who has mysteriously disappeared is a strip of city between the Archaeological Park of the Colosseum and viale del Colle Oppio, the Theatre of Marcellus and the Monti neighbourhood, in particular via degli Ibernesi and via Baccina. In the nearby Ghetto, they witness Nazis rounding up Jewish inhabitants.

Soon after, the main characters’ paths separate. Matilde has a close encounter with two Nazi soldiers on the isola Tiberina: behind the soldiers is Ponte Fabricio, one of the oldest bridges in the capital which links the island to the Ghetto (the cupola of the synagogue can be glimpsed in the darkness behind). She manages to escape and is saved by a ragged group of partisans hidden in the beech forest of Soriano nel Cimino. Israel is in a truck full of soldiers crossing parco degli Acquedotti. Cencio, Fulvio and Mario are together at the sumptuous Zirkus Berlin, created in the 19^th century forte Bravetta, in the Janiculum neighbourhood of Rome.

Tiburtina train station was recreated in Camigliatello Silano and the Sila mountain range accompanies the scenic path taken by the train transporting the rounded-up Jews to Germany.

Interior sets were built at Videa Studios on via Livigno.