This evening, Arte is launching the broadcast of the “Esterno Notte” series. The filmmaker Marco Bellochio signs this historical fiction telling the assassination of the president of the Christian Democracy Aldo Moro by the Red Brigades, in 1978, in Italy.
On Wednesday March 15, 2023, Arte launches the broadcast of Esterno Notte, the first series by filmmaker Marco Bellochio. Divided into six 52-minute episodes, this precise and successful historical fresco takes place in Italy, in 1978. A merciless war is ravaging the country. On one side, the Red Brigades, the first armed group of the extreme left. On the other: the state.
A huge political scandal in Italy
For the first time in the history of a western country, a government backed by the Communist Party (CPI) is about to take office following a historic compromise with the party of Christian Democracy (DC ), the nation’s last bastion of conservatism.
Its president, Aldo Moro, was the main supporter of this alliance, which marked a major turning point in the process of mutual recognition between the two largest Italian parties at the time. On March 16, the day of the presentation before the Chamber of Deputies of this new government – made possible by Aldo Moro’s insight into politics – the latter was kidnapped on the way to Parliament by the terrorist commando.
Marco Bellochio’s first series
Through this murderous attack which leaves no survivors among the members of its police escort, it is the Italian State which is struck in the heart. Moro’s imprisonment will last 55 days. A period punctuated by a series of letters from the politician and press releases from the Red Brigades.
55 days of hope, fear, negotiations, failure, good intentions and bad deeds. 55 days that ended with the discovery of his body abandoned in the back of a car in the center of Rome, halfway between the respective headquarters of the PCI and the DC…
Marco Bellochio (Palme d’honneur at the Cannes Film Festival in 2021) signs the screenplay for this major work with the authors Stefano Bises, Ludovica Rampoldi and Davide Serino. In the casting of Esterno Notte, Arte viewers discover the actor with Fabrizio Gifuni in the skin of Aldo Moro. He gives the answer here to the actors Margherita Buy, Toni Servillo, Fausto Russo Alesi, Gabriel Montesi and Daniela Marra.
The six episodes of the series are already visible on the arte.tv website.