Kino Lorber has acquired North American rights to Abel Ferrara’s biographical drama “Pasolini” which stars Willem Dafoe as the Italian writer and film director.
“Pasolini” world premiered at Venice in 2014 and went on to play at Toronto and New York. The movie will have its long-awaited theatrical premiere in New York at The Metrograph on May 10. A sneak premiere of “Pasolini” will be hosted on May 3, as part of a month-long Abel Ferrara retrospective called “Abel Ferrara Unrated” at the Museum of Modern Art.
The film chronicles “Pasolini”‘s final hours after completing his controversial classic, Salò, also known as the 120 Days of Sodom, leading up to his brutal murder on the beach in Ostia in 1975.
While writing Salò, Pasolini faced much resistance from the public, politicians and press, but he persisted on working on his novel and screenplay — which brought to life his imagination with gays and lesbians coming together to procreate in one sequence. The film also stars Maria de Madeiros.
“Not your average biopic, passion meets passion in this very provocative film,” said Kino Lorber’s senior VP Wendy Lidell, who negotiated the deal with the head of Capricci Film, Julien Rejl.
“I cannot imagine a more perfect artistic pairing than Abel Ferrara and Willem Dafoe for the task of bringing to life the fiery intellect of the great Italian poet, philosopher and filmmaker, Pier Paolo Pasolini. Some audiences may be scandalized, but that is exactly what Pasolini would have wanted,” added Lidell.
Following its U.S. theatrical premiere on May 10, “Pasolini” will roll out on VOD and home video in the fall.