This film screened on Monday 7th September 2015. 

The final part of the trilogy saw Pasolini seek inspiration by leaving Europe, figuratively and literally. Shot in disparate and exotic locales from Ethiopia to Nepal, it’s his adaptation of the famed Arabic compendium, The One Thousand and One Nights.

When a young man falls in love with a beautiful slave who is kidnapped, his search for her involves a number of sexual escapades. Meanwhile, she has managed to escape to a distant land where circumstances conspire to elevate her to king. Although the film retains a light air, there are elements of the disillusionment that would come to such shocking fruition in Salò.

Showing as part of our Focus on Pier Paolo Pasolini (September 5th-13th). Abel Ferrara’s Pasolini opens at the IFI on Friday, September 11th.