The destinies of a Norwegian cycling activist and Pasolini translator, a young farmer fighting to protect her land from real estate speculation, and a pragmatic policeman, converge in a struggle to create the "Pasolini Path" along the Tiber River, linking Rome to the sea where the poet was killed. In the wild yet urbanized outskirts of the city, as they battle bureaucracy, unchecked urbanization and powerful landowners, have these unlikely heroes embarked on a doomed fight?

The title The Corsair River is a reference to "Corsair Writings" by Pier Paolo Pasolini, a 1970s volume of radical critique of developed Western societies. There is something universal in this journey of antiheroes searching for themselves and a sense of belonging. The need to adopt different and sustainable life models is universal, embracing feelings of care for the space and the communities that inhabit it. This small anabasis portrays the cruelty and beauty of the river landscape, an epic that becomes a parable of a lost society. Our story unfolds on the brink of an abyss of economic, ecological, urban, and anthropological disaster that concerns us all. The observational work lasted four years. A long period during which the lives of the protagonists and our own were turned upside down. During the making of the film, co-director Pietro Balla passed away. I would have liked to continue battling with him in the editing room, but that doesn’t make the film any less irreducibly “ours”.

I want to conclude these notes with Pietro's words. When a woman on the riverbank, during the shooting, asked what story we were telling and whether it would end with the creation of the “Pasolini Path”, he replied: “It’s a story of certain losers. I don’t know exactly who is right or wrong, because the matter is very complicated. But it’s paradigmatic of these times... When will it end? It will last until we can resist.”

Director
Pietro Balla, Monica Repetto
Story
Pietro Balla, Monica Repetto
Screenplay
Pietro Balla, Monica Repetto
Director of photography
Antonio Demma
Cast and characters

Sven Scheen, Mario Girolami, Giulia Marrocchini, Pietro Marrocchini

Production Director
Monica Repetto
Organizzatore generale
Executive production
Pietro Balla, Monica Repetto
Producer
Pietro Balla, Monica Repetto
Production
con il sostegno di Film Commission Torino Piemonte - Piemonte Doc Film Fund - sviluppo dicembre 2020, produzione dicembre 2021
Last update: 31 January 2025