«Buongiorno, notte» (2003)

In the 1970s Italy was rocked with acts of political terrorism, committed by far-left and far-right terrorist groups. This period was called the Years of Lead and some historians even characterized it as a low-intensity civil war. This, combined with economic crisis, gave the impression of the total collapse of the Italian state and full impotence of the ruling party (Democrazia Cristiana).

That situation demanded irregular decisions and certain major players of Democrazia Cristiana, including Aldo Moro, decided to make reapproachment with the Italian Communist Party. The Historic Compromise was opposed by lots of powerful forces, but it gave a hope of fixing the chronic Italian problems. Then, on 16^th of March, 1978, Aldo Moro was kidnapped by the Reb Brigades.

By the end of the 1970s, the Italian Communist Party shifted to the reasonable left-wing platform and showed its administrative credentials in the certain parts of Italy (including Emilia-Romagna). On the other hand, the Red Brigades was a radical left-wing terrorist organization in the mold of Narodnaya Volya. They applied such principles as a culpability of a person just on a merit of his affiliation with the certain class (i.e. bourgeoisie).

The film captures the spirit of the Red Brigades, whose members were, among them, dogmatic radicals, who were committed only to so-called «proletarian justice», or left-wing students, who began to get disappointed in violence. At first, they think that the Italian state is on its knees and the Italians will support them, but the reality is different – the people are indifferent or appalled and the political class took a hard stance against terrorism.

Marco Bellocchio shows the events through the eyes of Chiara – a 23-year old radicalized woman, who assists the Brigades and works as some dead-end job at the ministry. Firstly, she sees everything through the prism of class struggle and considers Aldo Moro as an oppressor. Still, she starts to see things differently and understands that nothing is black and white. In addition, Chiara starts to realize that her organization is turning into something that she truly abhors – fascists, which were also ready to execute people without proper proof of their guilt.

Nevertheless, they already went too far and there is no turning back for them. The Director also included the repetitive historical pattern of how some radical fools (such as SA during the rise of Hitler or Left Socialist-Revolutionaries during the Russian Revolution) are used for some political gain and then discarded as an used ammo. So, the Red Brigades became useful to sabotage the Historic Compromise, but for how long?

The film captures this claustrophobic atmosphere and the heroes are already in prison. Only, for that moment, their prison got separate rooms, good food, books and wine. Nevertheless, soon they will move to a less comfortable prison, where they will rot for many years to come. Moreover. their prisoner, a decent (at least, for a politician) family man and god-fearing Catholic, will be uses as a martyr to promote some short-term political goals.

A former radical left-wing activist Marco Bellocchio shot an extraordinary film about how idealism, combined with political radicalism, could lead to barbaric actions and how those actions can be exploited by some smart people. Watch it.