Accattone

Reaching beyond the humanist ethics that underpinned classic neo-realism, Pasolinis astonishing directorial debut is already amature statement on ‘re-sacralising’ humanexistence. A powerful and moving workevocating the primordial links between violence and the sacred, the story anchors on a pimp from the poorest district of Rome who lives on the earnings ofprostitutes, but faces his senseless demiseironically for his empathy with an innocentgirl. Stridently lyrical, this truthful portrait of the misery and eros of the sub-proletariat embodies what Pasolini would later theoriseas his ‘cinema of poetry.’

Karlovy Vary International Film Festival: Best Director Award