Federico Fellini with the project, "The Thousand Miles", based on various works of Fellini including his unpublished drawings and writings. General Federico Fellini Federico Fellini, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI (; 20 January 1920 – 31 October 1993) was an Italian film director and screenwriter. Known for his distinct style that blends fantasy and baroque images with earthiness, he is recognized as one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers of all time. His films have ranked, in polls such as "Cahiers du cinéma" and "Sight & Sound", as some of the greatest films of all time. "Sight & Sound" lists his
Federico Fellini broadcasts which cheered an audience depressed by the war. In November 1942, Fellini was sent to Libya, occupied by Fascist Italy, to work on the screenplay of "I cavalieri del deserto" ("Knights of the Desert", 1942), directed by Osvaldo Valenti and Gino Talamo. Fellini welcomed the assignment as it allowed him "to secure another extension on his draft order". Responsible for emergency re-writing, he also directed the film's first scenes. When Tripoli fell under siege by British forces, he and his colleagues made a narrow escape by boarding a German military plane flying to Sicily. His African adventure, later published