In La prova generale, Carlo (Carlo Cecchi) interviews with a tape machine and a microphone his young lover while the two wander in the beautiful splendour of a wood on the edge of the city.

Birri devoted his energies to opposing social class inequalities in Argentina, yet with the Frondizi government ousted by the military, Birri was forced to leave the country in late 1963. While in political exile he traveled throughout Latin America teaching young filmmakers his craft, eventually returning to Rome due to lack of resources. He spent ten years making the little-seen experimental art film, Org. When it was finally finished in 1978 it so outraged its producer that he ordered it destroyed (though reportedly a print still exists).