Marco Bellocchio's 'Esterno Notte' Premieres at Cannes 75

Marco Bellocchio returns to the Cannes Film Festival with 'Esterno Notte,' a six-episode series about the 1978 kidnapping and murder of Aldo Moro by the Red Brigades. The series, his first for television, premieres in the Première section. It revisits the 55-day ordeal from the perspectives of those outside Moro's prison—politicians, family, clergy, and even psychics—using a tragic-grotesque tone. Fabrizio Gifuni plays Moro, with a cast including Margherita Buy, Toni Servillo as Pope Paul VI, and Fausto Russo Alesi as Francesco Cossiga. The series is released in Italian cinemas in two parts: from May 18 and June 9, 2022, distributed by Lucky Red, and will air on Rai 1 in autumn. Bellocchio, who previously directed the film 'Buongiorno notte' on the same subject, felt compelled to explore the 'outside' of the kidnapping after seeing a 2017 article by Filippo Ceccarelli. The series delves into the political turmoil of 1970s Italy, including the historic alliance between the Christian Democrats and the Communist Party, which Moro championed. Bellocchio notes that the series shows how 'that man, like Christ, had to die' for nothing to change in Italian politics and minds.