Italy in the late 1970s – the republic is in turmoil. Street battles and political assassinations are the order of the day. Left and right terrorist groups are engaged in a violent struggle. The Italian Communist Party (PCI) is stronger than anywhere else in Europe. In this atmosphere, Aldo Moro, President of the Christian Democrats (DC), decides to try to bridge the political divide: in a historic compromise, he wants to form a government of national unity, which the communists will tolerate. However, his own party, which is the dominant political power, is unhappy with this. And the supporters of the communists sense betrayal.
In the six-part television production And outside the night director Marco Bellocchio devotes himself to the case of the Italian Prime Minister, who was kidnapped on March 16, 1978 by members of the left-wing terrorist group Red Brigades and 55 days later found dead in the trunk of a red Renault. Already in the movie Buongiorno notte Bellocchio told the story of the kidnapping and murder from the perspective of the terrorists in 2003. But the material doesn’t seem to let him go. This does not only apply to the director, who was born in 1939. In Italy, the Moro case is considered an “epochal trauma of recent history” (La Republica). Three million people watched the first broadcast of And outside the night on Italian television. Now the series can be seen for the first time with German dubbing on Arte.
Four perspectives between the bloody beginning and the tragic end of Moro’s kidnapping
Bellocchio uses the freedom offered by serial storytelling for character studies and this time approaches the events from four different perspectives. The frame spans the first and last episode, which deal with the bloody beginning and the tragic end of the kidnapping of Moro (Fabrizio Gifuni). Each of the four central episodes focuses on different protagonists: Minister of the Interior Cossiga (Fausto Russo Alesi), who sees Moro as a kind of fatherly friend and does everything to free him. Pope Paul VI (Toni Servillo), a childhood friend of the President’s student days who calls Italians to prayer and collects funds for a possible ransom. A Red Brigades terrorist (Daniela Marra), torn between a sense of responsibility to her daughter and the urgency of the revolution, begins to have doubts. In addition, Moro’s wife Eleonora (Margherita Buy), who slowly but surely realizes that some of the responsible politicians do not primarily have their husband’s liberation in mind.
Along the various characters – cast with a great ensemble that includes some of the best-known Italian actors of the present – Bellocchio paints a profound, at times grim picture of society, church and politics during the anni di piombo (leaden years), this time of violent political conflicts that culminated in Moro’s assassination.
And outside the night six parts in the media library and from March 15, 2023, 9:55 p.m. on Arte.
You can find more series recommendations here.