A filmmaker so dangerous to fascism, they had to silence him with silence itself.
The documentary aims to tell the story of a director who managed to capture the attention of the whole world and, due to his political and aesthetic coherence, was able to work much less than he deserved. It's the story of a film professor who earned the gratitude and affection of all his students. The tale of a cinephile who successfully combined social and civic commitment with a spectacular talent worthy of Hollywood.
Editing
Seamless weave of De Santis footage with contemporary testimony.
Direction
Della Casa channels his subject's own activist energy.
Production
Uncovered archival treasures that rewrite Italian film history.
Director
Steve Della Casa
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
De Santis's 1949 'Bitter Rice' was so scandalous for its physical female laborers that the Catholic Church created new rating systems to suppress it.
The documentary reveals that De Santis's FBI file, obtained through Freedom of Information, classified his crime dramas as 'communist infiltration of American genre conventions'—a genuinely unhinged read of 'Tragic Pursuit.'
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