In the role of the "second-class servant" in the film was Claudio Volonté, who had a conflctive relationship with his brother Gian Maria Volonté, towards whose success he probably had an inferiority complex. A few years later Claudio Volontè was arrested for murder and committed suicide in prison.
The indications that the director gave the actors were to get a recitation almost in trance, not naturalistic, and that each line practically had to presuppose an unsaid.
At first the film was supposed to be filmed in Yugoslavia but eventually the director chose the Lucanian lands, which he knew very well, having set most of his previous documentaries.
The statuette with open arms is reference to the last shot of the documentary "Magia Lucana" (directed by Di Gianni himself in 1958), in which appears a man with his arms stretched out towards the sun.
The slow and hieratic pace, the use of lights and costumes are a clear reference to the "Day of wrath" directed by Dreyer, one of the most beloved films by Luigi Di Gianni.