Italy celebrates 100 years of Pasolini

Rome: Italy is to mark the centenary of the birth of the film director, poet, writer and intellectual Pier Paolo Pasolini with a series of special events in 2022.

Rome will pay tribute to Pasolini with a trilogy of exhibitions at Palazzo Barberini, MAXXI and Palazzo delle Esposizioni, scheduled in the autumn of this year.

There will also be shows dedicated to the controversial figure in other Italian cities including Pasolini’s hometown of Bologna where he was born on 5 March 1922.

Among the numerous books marking the centenary is a new collection of letters by the Italian writer Dacia Maraini who documents travels with her close friend Pasolini and her partner, the novelist Alberto Moravia.

New publications will also delve into the mystery surrounding Pasolini’s unsolved murder at Ostia near the Italian capital on 2 November 1975, reports news agency ANSA.

A major figure on the Roman cultural scene in the post-war period, Pasolini was an important protagonist in European literature and cinematic arts.

Pasolini is best remembered for films including Accattone, Mamma Roma and Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom, and literary works Ragazzi di vita and Una vita violenta.