SATURDAY 23 at 5pm we meet DAVIDE DESARIO, writer and journalist, director of Adnkronos, who will present his book STORIE BASTARDE. QUEI RAGAZZI RAGAZZI CRESCIUTI TRA PASOLINI E LA BANDA DELLA MAGLIANA ed.Avagnano

PLOT

The extreme outskirts of Rome. A Wild West of slums, shacks, and apartment blocks on the seashore, where the line between life and crime is very thin. A group of kids live here, where Pier Paolo Pasolini was killed, they cross the pine forest where they happen to play with the corpse of a hanged man, they meet the “good guys” of the Banda della Magliana and the red primrose of the Red Brigades, Barbara Balzerani. It could be any place on the outskirts of Italy, like today’s Caivano, Tor Bella Monaca, Quarto Oggiaro, Scampia or the Zen of Palermo: a land where you can survive between hope and frustration. In the background, the news of the time flows, like the Vermicino tragedy. Brawls, beatings between reds and blacks, slingshots and stolen scooters, muggings and bets, rivalries between enemy gangs, the stakeout in the trees to watch secluded couples making love, conquered women and women only dreamed of become magnifying glasses on a youth looking for a future. Suddenly those kids find themselves men. But they have left too many friends on the street: between overdoses, murders and infamous destinies. Innocent challenges and dangerous games, a humanity “de lama e de fero”, the metropolis and the city. A book that leads us into the heart of childhood and youth, that speaks the language of the street, melancholic and rough at the same time. Bastard stories that remind us of how we were. And help us understand how we are.

€16