Based on the real-life kidnapping of President Aldo Moro by members of a terrorist organization known as the Red Brigade in 1978, Good Morning, Night is a compelling, thoughtful, and understatedly powerful film that captures the turmoil and uncertainty caused by Moro’s (Roberto Herlitzka) brazen kidnapping and the subsequent 53 days of frustratingly stalled and insincere attempts at dialogue and negotiation with Italian authorities, from government officials to the Vatican. By personalizing the inevitable tragedy from the point-of-view of Chiara (Maya Sansa), a deeply conflicted young woman whose surfacing humanity for the gentle-spoken, sensible, and conciliatory Moro – whom she sees as a father figure – and her resolute duty to the militant cause, Bellocchio creates a provocative, complex, and profoundly disturbing portrait of myopic ideology, self-righteousness, moral obligation, and the importance of communication and compromise.
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