Good Morning, Night review

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A compelling retelling of the 1978 commie kidnapping of Italian PM Aldo Moro, Good Morning, Night presents events from the perspective of young Red Brigade terrorist Chiara (Maya Sansa).

The action unspools in the Rome apartment where she and her fellow revolutionaries have imprisoned their bemused captive Moro (Roberto Herlitzka) in a specially constructed cell. Watching the news bulletins on TV, however, the group realises the Italian people, far from seeking to overthrow the state, are demanding the hostage's release.

With a keen sense of claustrophobia and entrapment, veteran writer/director Marco Bellocchio immerses us in the daily routines of the kidnapper `family', showing how their fundamentalist beliefs waver when confronted by Moro's dignity and rationality.

Skilfully incorporating historical footage (including haunting images of Partisans being executed by Fascists in World War Two), this is an impressively controlled and regrettably timely work.

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