The remarkable life and horrific death of Pier Paolo Pasolini

In 1975 a left-wing film director was brutally murdered on the streets of Rome. No one knows what happened and the authorities aren’t interested in the truth. Kevin Childs recalls a fearless intellectual

Pasolini: a thorn in the municipal side (Getty)

Imagine the scene as if it were a movie script. Piazza del Cinquecento, Rome, at night. The big yellow lights, the bulk of Stazione Termini, Rome’s main train station, stretching out into the dark like a great sleeping dragon. A tracking camera, high up on a mechanical crane arm, gives a sweep of the piazza in front, the comings and goings, cars pull up and people get out, some running to catch a late train, others sauntering to a news stand or cafe.

It’s early November, but not too cold. The warm autumn has lingered on.

The camera follows one car, a silver Alfa Romeo 2000GT, low, sporty, sleek, as it comes to a stop on the curb of the piazza by a cafe called Gambrinus. Some boys, 17 and 18-year-olds, hang about outside.