Pier Paolo Pasolini is one of cinema's greatest figures. The influence he continues to exert to this day, one of the of the many contradictions surrounding his life, has not yet been fully recognised. Responsible for a challenging, hard-to-classify body of film and literary work, and an equally explosive personality, Pasolini talks calmly, splendid as ever in front of the camera (despite all the uproar and expectations around the shooting of “Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom” at the time), as he concisely explains his views on cinema and life. Bertolucci thus achieves a true portrait, allowing Pasolini has to talk about his own work and ideas with the filming of Salo as a starting point, and weaving in an interview by journalist and documentary maker Gideon Bachmann with photos by Deborah Imogen Beer also taken at the set of what would be, due to his early, violent death in 1975, his last film.

A prison on the island of Nisida, in Naples, is home to 40 adolescents aged between 14 and 21. The kids design masks to hide their identities during the shooting of the film. It is this very facet which contributes to establishing an increasingly intimate rapport with three of the inmates – Enzo, Rosario and Samir, confronted by prison life, invite us to share their daily routine of school and work, boredom and captivity. They also recount their stories and share their moments of hope and disappointment. If the objective of their punishment is, as stated in the Constitution, re-education, the film questions the compatibility between learning and imprisonment.

The slow life of a little village near the city, and the city's fast pace. How can these two competing world views be reconciled' Is there a third way, a truly sustainable form of development? With the help of Luca Mercally, the filmmakers try to map out several possible pathways and a “solution” that could point us in the right direction.