Mimmo Mignemi as Giorgia's father Domenico Centamore as Officer Enzo Pippo Montalbano as Police Chief in Palermo Gaspare Cucinella as 'Viddanu Dario Veca as butcher Nicola Vigilante as nurse Marcello Prayer as Second Lieutenant Walter Da Pozzo as Officer Mario Krum De Nicola as Brigo Maurizio Di Carmine as terrorist Roberto Accornero as President of the Court in Turin Fabio Camilli as Tangentopoli inmate Antonello Puglisi as priest in Palermo Patrizia Punzo as gallery manager Emilia Marra as doctor Production Principal photography began in March 2002, taking place mainly in Florence, Turin and Collegno in the following months. On 26 June 2002, filming moved to Stromboli, lasting three days. Filming also took place in Rome and North Cape, Norway. Release Originally set for a television broadcast on Rai 2, The Best of Youth was bought by Rai 1 and then indefinitely shelved from its scheduled air date of fall 2002. Set for February 2003, it was delayed again after TV spots had already aired. Freedom of expression association Articolo 21, liberi di... accused Rai 1 director Agostino Saccà and his successor Fabrizio Del Noce of making a politically charged use of public television in favor of the Berlusconi government (see Editto Bulgaro). In April, the film was selected for the Cannes Film Festival, where it had its world premiere on 20 May 2003, competing in the Un Certain Regard sidebar. Here, it received the Prize Un Certain Regard along with widespread critical acclaim, credited as having rekindled Rai's interest, who decided to give the film a theatrical release before airing it. Due to its extensive runtime, The Best of Youth was divided in two parts for its theatrical release in Italy, premiering on 7 and 8 June 2003 at the Taormina Film Festival: the first part () was released by 01 Distribution on 20 June, followed by the second one () on 27 June. A four-part version, with an additional 20 minutes of running time, was finally broadcast from 7 to 15 December 2003 on Rai 1 at 8:45 pm: Reception On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 94%, with an average rating of 8.40/10, based on 63 reviews, the critic consensus says that the film "earns its 6 hours running time by telling an engrossing story with compelling characters." On Metacritic, the film has a score (using a weighted average) of 89 out of 100, indicating