Heroin, hopelessness, and Helmut Berger—Italian exploitation cinema at its most unhinged.
A microcosm of people lost in search of an artificial happiness, which leads them to steal and prostitute themselves for the short ecstasy of a squirt of heroin in the veins. Marco and Pina live in this world of drugs, prostitution and violence, and they must fight for their survival. One day one of their friend dies during a holdup. Marco and Pina are helpless and will do anything to escape, but fate does not want a similar world. Between bites of heroin and sidewalk they are in a deadly trance.
Acting
Berger's hollow-eyed decay is genuinely unsettling.
Direction
Pirri's grimy Rome feels authentically suffocating.
Director
Massimo Pirri
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Part of Italy's 'anni di piombo' cinema wave, reflecting real heroin epidemics in 1970s Rome.
Pirri allegedly used real addicts as extras; several were reportedly high during filming.
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