The Stars in the Ditch) is a 1979 Italian film directed by Pupi Avati.

[1][2] The film's story was developed while filming on a very low budget, with actor Giulio Pizzirani stating that he did not know anything about the script and that Pupi Avati gave the actors sheets of papers with lines to remember which he would repeat and occasionally improvise on.

[4] Cesare Bastelli, the assistant director on the film stated that he found an injured seagull while filming which led to Pupi Avati writing a scene where Cavina finds a bird and takes it into her kitchen.

[5] Le strelle nel fosso was distributed theatrically in Italy by Impegno Cinematografico on 24 March 1979.

[1][6] Critic Tullio Kezich wrote on the film, stating that even though Pupi Avati "returns to the Fantastic inspiration of his earliest and best experiments, loses along the way every naturalness and results in almost always manneristic excitement"[7][8] Elliott Stein wrote on The Village Voice that "this elegiac fable is irresistible, and Avati's remarkable feeling for landscape has never been put to better use".