How did Pier Paolo Pasolini die? What were the motives behind his assassination? Moreover, who was Pier Paolo Pasolini? The question is more than timely because today he has not only been forgotten by many of those who saw his films or read his writings, but most youngsters do not know who he was. Especially many young males who today paint their lips, wear a skirt and go out carrying an LGBTQ+ banner and do not know the work done before them by generations with a firm stand, a solid ideological discourse and militancy for social issues beyond their sexual orientation, who were perhaps more radical in times of less permissiveness. Pasolini was one of those. Not only was he an open homosexual who protested against Italian politics in the middle of the past century, but a great poet, novelist, filmmaker, essayist and politician, and for some "the greatest Italian intellectual of the 20th century". But he knew too much. He knew what politician did what to whom, what this or that politician was after, who they bribed, who they had killed. So his assassination in 1975 was not the simple story of the middle-aged pederast who picks up a young proletarian hustler, who ends up killing him. As soon as the news was known, intellectuals and a few journalists raised their voices of protest, among them the well-known Oriana Fallaci, author of "Interview with History", who had a love-hate relationship with the poet, who, as she said, invoked violence with his statements. "Pasolini, an Italian Crime" is not a retelling of his life, his intimate dealings or his guilts, to satisfy curious people. It is a legal drama, sometimes somber, sometimes sad, but always moving, an investigative work of dramatic force, with good performances (with a few poignant moments, as the one delivered by Adriana Asti), directed by Marco Tullio Giordana, the award-winning filmmaker who gave us "La meglio gioventù". Made in commemoration of the 20th anniversary of Pasolini's death, the film is based on the novel "Life of Pasolini" by Enzo Siciliano and it deservedly won the Gold Medal of the President of the Italian Senate at the Venezia Film Festival in 1995. A mature, fine film.
