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Ostia

Forum 50 2020
A group of men find a woman lying unconscious in the grass and carry her to two brothers, who are living in their childhood home. The three of them duly embark upon a game that explores the many gradations between attraction and repulsion. Based on a screenplay co-written with Pasolini, Citti tells the story of drifters in search of themselves, whose internal unease shapes the ways in which they treat one another; violence is always latent. Citti devotes as much time to the characters as he does to the city and beach landscapes of Ostia, a suburb of Rome. Incest, rape, sexual orientation, patricide – these people’s experiences lies between the rules of Catholicism and the motives of psychoanalysis, and are acted out in a symbiosis of documentary images and theatrical burlesque: cynical and tender, frivolous and dark, full of broken taboos.
by Sergio Citti
with Franco Citti, Laurent Terzieff, Anita Sanders, Lamberto Maggiorani, Ninetto Davoli, Celestino Compagnoni, Luise Tirinnanzi, Alberto del Prete, Settimio Piconi, Filippo Costanzo, Maurizio Bianconi, Gianni Pulone, Gualtiero Fiorentino, Giulio Simonetti, Alberto Chiaparelli, Fernando Pergentili, Sandro Giordano Italy 1970 Italian 103’ Colour

With

  • Franco Citti (Rabbino)
  • Laurent Terzieff (Bandiera)
  • Anita Sanders (The Girl)
  • Lamberto Maggiorani (The Girl's Father)
  • Ninetto Davoli (Fiorino)
  • Celestino Compagnoni (The Two Brothers' Father)
  • Luise Tirinnanzi (The Two Brothers' Mother)
  • Alberto del Prete (Aria)
  • Settimio Piconi (Baffo)
  • Filippo Costanzo (Rabbino as a child)
  • Maurizio Bianconi (Bandiera as a child)
  • Gianni Pulone
  • Gualtiero Fiorentino
  • Giulio Simonetti
  • Alberto Chiaparelli
  • Fernando Pergentili
  • Sandro Giordano

Crew

Director Sergio Citti
Screenplay Sergio Citti, Pier Paolo Pasolini
Cinematography Mario Mancini
Editing Nino Baragli, Carlo Reali
Sound Angelo Spadoni
Music Franco de Masi

Sergio Citti

Born in Rome in 1933. He worked as a screenwriter in close collaboration with his friend Pier Paolo Pasolini. Within the framework of this collaboration, he wrote the script for Pasolini's Salò o le 120 giornate di Sodoma (1975). Citti died in Ostia in 2005.

Filmography

1973 Storie scellerate (Bawdy Tales / Decamerone – Abenteuer der Wollust); 97 min. 1977 Casotto (Beach House / Strandgeflüster); 106 min. 1979 Due pezzi di pane (Two Pieces of Bread / Zwei Väter, ein Kind und die schöne Lucia); 110 min. 1981 Il minestrone (The Soup); 104 min., Competition 1981 1989 Mortacci (Es leben die Toten); 102 min. 1996 I magi randagi (We Free Kings / Die heimatlosen drei Könige); 97 min., Forum 1997 2000 Vipera (Viper); 95 min. 2004 Fratella e sorello (Free in Jail); 98 min.

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2020