Willem Dafoe

The Roman life and the imaginary worlds of Pier Paolo Pasolini intermingle in Abel Ferrara’s retelling of the final days in the life of the fifty-year-old filmmaker and writer (played by Willem Dafoe), in a lovely, haunting film that draws on his last interview and envisages scenes from an unmade final film and his incomplete novel, Petrolio.

Willem Dafoe is an American artist living in Rome with his family, played by Abel Ferrara’s real-life wife and daughter. Their tumultuous relationship is set against his day to day life as a teacher, ex-pat, and recovering addict.

Two philosophically opposed FBI agents attempt to overcome their differences and uncover the chilling mystery of a small Ku Klux Klan-ridden community before it tears itself apart.