Fellini had a lifelong fascination with the circus as a magical space where everyday reality is transcended, enhanced. But we shouldn’t shrug it off entirely either: there’s truth to be found in a tall tale, even if it’s told by your wicked uncleįactually true or not, the essence of Fellini’s filmmaking is in that anecdote. Yet considering that Fellini openly admitted to being “a born liar,” we don’t have to take his yarn at face value. Quite an experience for an imaginative little fellow. While wandering awestruck under the big top, he hung out with circus folk and wound up tending to a sick zebra. When he was a young boy, maybe about seven or eight years old, Federico Fellini stole away from home in his small seaside resort town of Remini and joined the circus.
