PASOLINI 101 / Italian Cinema Masters

Pier Paolo Pasolini in front of a biblical scene during the filming of La Ricotta, 1962. Photo: Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Kino ARMATA, a public space in Prishtina that promotes alternative culture and social dialogue, has the pleasure of announcing partnership with the Italian Embassy in Kosovo and Istituto Italiano di Cultura in Tirana in bringing to Prishtina and Kosovo audiences some of the most important and relevant works of Italian auteurs.

The films of Michelangelo Antonioni, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Federico Fellini, Bernardo Bertolucci, Roberto Rossellini, etc. will have their regular screenings during '101' programming series at Kino ARMATA. In both academic and colloquial terms, 101 denotes the elementary or basic facts associated with the field or subject specified. During 101, ARMATA becomes a learning ground for the novices and enthusiasts alike, offering fresh insight into some of the most influential movies and filmmakers of our era.

Films from the 'PASOLINI 101 / Italian Cinema Masters' series directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini celebrating the centennial of his birth, will be screened at Kino ARMATA between 24–27 May 2022 and include:

Tuesday, 24 May, 19:30h
UCCELLACCI E UCCELLINI (1966), 91 min.
Wednesday, 25 May, 19:00h
ACCATTONE (1961), 117 min.
Thursday, 26 May, 19:00h
MAMMA ROMA (1962), 110 min.
Friday, 27 May, 19:00h
EDIPO RE (1967), 104 min.

Pier Paolo Pasolini (1922–1975) was an Italian film director, poet, writer, and intellectual, who also distinguished himself as an actor, journalist, novelist, playwright, and political figure.

A controversial personality in Italy due to his straightforward style, Pasolini's legacy remains contentious. He voiced strong criticism of petty bourgeois values and the emerging "totalitarianism of consumerism" in Italy, juxtaposing socio-political polemics with a critical examination of taboo sexual matters. A prominent protagonist of the Roman cultural scene of the post-war period, he was an established major figure in European literature and cinematic arts. His unsolved murder at Ostia in November 1975 during an altercation with a young male prostitute prompted an outcry in Italy, and its circumstances continue to be a matter of heated debate.

Pasolini's poverty-stricken existence in Rome during the 1950s furnished the material for his first two novels, Ragazzi di vita (1955; The Ragazzi) and Una vita violenta (1959; A Violent Life). These brutally realistic depictions of the poverty and squalor of slum life in Rome were similar in character to his first film, Accattone (1961), and all three works dealt with the lives of thieves, prostitutes, and other denizens of the Roman underworld.

Pasolini’s best known film, Il Vangelo secondo Matteo (1964; The Gospel According to Saint Matthew), is an austere, documentary-style retelling of the life and martyrdom of Jesus Christ. The comic allegory Uccellacci e Uccellini (1966; The Hawks and the Sparrows) was followed by two films attempting to re-create ancient myths from a contemporary viewpoint, Oedipus Rex (1967) and Medea (1969). Pasolini’s use of eroticism, violence, and depravity as vehicles for his political and religious speculations in such films as Teorema (1968; “Theorem”) and Porcile (1969; “Pigsty”) brought him into conflict with conservative elements of the Roman Catholic Church. He then ventured into medieval eroticism with Il Decamerone (1971) and The Canterbury Tales (1972). In addition to his motion pictures, Pasolini published numerous volumes of poetry and several works of literary criticism.