Marco Bellocchio’s six-part historically inspired television drama Exterior Night (Esterno Notte) pays homage to the Italian statesman Aldo Moro (1916-1978) during the last 55 days of his life. More than 40 years after Moro’s kidnapping and execution, the Italian public, scholars and filmmakers continue to plumb the facts, historical accounts, and the Vatican Archives to rescue and to resurrect Moro from a fate he did not deserve.

Exterior Night was first shown at the Cannes Film Festival in 2022 where Bellocchio received the Best Director Award, and Fabrizio Gifuni received the Best Actor Award for his portrayal of Moro. Awards were also given for Best Editing and Best Make-Up. 

Bellocchio’s highly acclaimed drama is a profoundly remarkable and discerning psychological study of Italian society whose four pillars include the following: the Vatican, the Mafia, the Capitalists and the Politicians. The lacerating screenplay by  Bellocchio, Stefano Bises, Ludovica Rampoldi and Davide Serino is an indictment of each faction’s role in a rescue effort of calculated failure. The screenwriters succeed in crafting a landscape of characters without exonerating the guilty. This opulent production is a testament to the memory of an honorable man forsaken on the altar of political and moral expediency by allies, friends and rivals.

The disclaimers for each episode allow Bellocchio the creative freedom to re-interpret the currently known facts as the actors bring their characters to life. Scenes are cut, others are inserted, and the flashback scenes are interspersed with factual information used as narrative hooks allowing the non-linear plot to move back and forth as scenes shift leading up to that fateful day. Under Bellocchio’s direction, Fabrizio Gifuni inhabits Aldo Moro and his destiny completely and humbly while being supported by an extraordinarily gifted cast that has done justice to a great man.

Who was Aldo Moro?

Aldo Moro was a center-left politician who served as the prime minister of Italy in five different terms, from 1963 to 1976. Of course, his story is so much more than that. 

To understand Moro’s soaring flight from working class origins to the upper echelons of power, we must go back to his early life. Moro’s rise to power began after receiving his law degree from the University of Bari in 1939. As professor of the philosophy of law, colonial policy and criminal law at the University of Bari and then at La Sapienza University of Rome during Mussolini’s fascist regime, Moro had to interrupt his career to join the army during World War II. He contributed to the creation of the Code of Camaldoli – a Catholic-influenced economic policy eventually used as a guideline by the Christian Democrats. 

After becoming Vice President of the center-left Christian Democratic Party, Moro was elected to the Constituent Assembly of Italy in 1946 and he helped revise the Constitution in 1948 after being elected to the Chamber of Deputies. His other positions included Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of Grace and Justice, and Minister of Education. Moro served as Prime Minister of Italy first from December 1963 to June 1968 and again from November 1974 to July 1976. His stabilizing, far-sighted beliefs led to the redistribution of resources between Northern and Southern Italy while promoting a pan-European policy by uniting Europe’s political and economic resources to overcome “Cold War” punitive actions (Italy was a beneficiary of the US Marshall Plan). He was also in favor of welcoming Arab countries into the Western world.  

Moro’s economic concerns for his fellow Italians led to his introduction of several social reforms including extended social security with unemployment benefits, raising the minimum wage and approving compulsory health insurance. However, with the rise of inflation at the end of the economic miracle, a coalition crisis ensued. As Minister of Foreign Affairs, he continued his predecessor’s pro-Arab policies known as the Moro Pact. The Pact forced Arab nationalist Yasser Arafat ‘not’ to carry out terrorist attacks on Italian soil. Moro also had difficulties with Muammar Gaddafi over Libya’s energy resources and the safety of the Italian population there.

Aldo Moro’s political beliefs

Moro’s political, ethical and judicial convictions placed the individual at the center of positive, proactive dialectical discourse between opposing factions. This discourse for civil well-being rather than for private gain was intended to lead to an open, fearless integration of peoples, cultures and religions during the rapidly growing economic crisis. His policy of integration and communication between the communists and socialists is known as the “Historical Compromise” through “parallel convergences” (mutual benefits). Moro’s innovative political philosophy and universal empathy made him a target within his party, as reflected in the power plays between Cassiga (Fausto Russo Alessi), Andreotti (Fabrizio Contri) and Zaccagnini (Gigio Alberti). Only Pope Paul VI (Tony Servillo), a close friend and ally and Moro’s wife Eleonora (Margherita Buy) wanted to save him from his eventual kidnapping by paying a hefty ransom. Moro’s numerous letters appealing for negotiations to free him go unheeded. The splintered political groups — backed by resistant generals — remain firm in their intransigence while rejecting every appeal to negotiate with the far-left terrorist group Brigate Rosse/Red Brigades. Moro’s belief in democracy was grounded in respect for human life, divergent beliefs and open dialogue capable of uniting opposing views leading to justice, communication and collaboration based on mutual respect while maintaining one’s own identity.

An incomplete epilogue

The Brigate Rosse opposed Moro and the PCI’s (Partito Comunista Italiano – the largest communist party in Western Europe) “Historic Compromise.” For the Red Brigades, the success of Moro’s kidnapping would prevent the Communists’ rise and integration into state institutions which they already viewed as corrupt and oppressive under capitalism. The exclusion of the PCI from the political mainstream would ultimately favor the Red Brigades in their continuous revolution against capitalism because they believed that the Christian Democratic Party – Moro’s Party – had been suppressing the Italian people for years. Despite several trials, many facts and elements have never been completely cleared up, according to Andrew Sagerson’s article, “The kidnapping and assassination of Aldo Moro” published in Wanted in Rome (May 9, 2023). Sagerson proposes alternate theories, including conspiracy theories, about the events. Twenty years after Moro’s murder, The New York Times reported that few Italians believed that only the Red Brigades were responsible for Moro’s murder because the government and the police didn’t do all they could have and should have to save him. Andrew Gumbel’s piece in The Independent, “The Riddle of Aldo Moro: Was Italy’s Establishment Happy to See Him?” (March 8, 1998) further elaborated on the media’s perception and concurred with what everyone believed.

Books and articles about the Moro Affair continue to be published unabated well into this decade. Crisis committees and 60 prominent scholars in the fields of history and politics signed a document denouncing the conspiracy theories. Judge Ferdinando Imposimato, a jurist in the Moro case, stated in 2013 what most Italians believe: Moro was murdered by the Red Brigades (more about the individual terrorists below) with the knowledge and complicity of Andreotti, Cossiga and Nicola Lettieri (Cossiga’s undersecretary during Cossiga’s absence).

Notes:

The Red Brigades terrorists involved in the kidnapping and execution of Aldo Moro are as follows: 

Corrado Alunni-1978 captured; life imprisonment; 1989-parole due to dissociation; 2022-died. 

Valerio Morucci-1979 captured; 32 years in prison; 1994-paroled due to dissociation. 

Barbara Balzerani-1985 captured; 6 life terms in prison; 2006-paroled; 2024-died. 

Mario Moretti-1981 captured; 6 life terms in prison; 1997-paroled. He admitted killing Moro. 

Alvaro Lojacono-1989 captured in Switzerland; life imprisonment; 2000-parole. 

Alessio Casimirri-never captured; fled to Nicaragua where he owns a restaurant. 

Rita Agranati-wife of Casimirri; 2004-arrested in Cairo; life imprisonment. 

Adriana Faranda-1979-captured; 30 years in prison; 1994-paroled due to dissociation. 

Prospero Gallinari-1979 captured; life imprisonment; 1996-house arrest; 2013-died.

There were five Trials in Rome’s Court of Assizes resulting in life sentences as well as three inquiry commissions and two parliamentary commissions.

Political violence and social upheaval lasted in Italy from the late 1960s to the late 1980s with far-left and far-right terrorist organizations including Nuclei Armati Rivo Luzionari – comprised of neo-fascists who bombed the Bologna Railroad Station in 1980.  

FAR LEFT TERRORIST GROUPS INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING: Red Brigades/Brigate Rosse (1970-88); Front Line (1976-81); October 22 Group (1969-71); PAC (1976-79); Continuous Struggle (1969-76); Workers’ Power (1967-73); Workers’ Autonomy (1973-79) supported by RAF, Sigurimi, PLO, KGB, STASI, MUKHABARAT el-JAMAHIRIYA, UDBA (the last alleged).

FAR RIGHT TERRORIST GROUPS INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING: New Order (1957-73); National Vanguard (1960-76); Black Order (1974-78); NAR (1977-81); Third Position (1978-82) supported by Propaganda Due, SISMI, MAGLIANA GANG, CIA, COSA NOSTRA (the last alleged).

Further Watching

SOME FILMS CONCERNING ITALY’S “YEARS OF LEAD” INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING: Mother’s Heart (D: S. Samperi, 1969); Let’s Have a Riot (D: L. Zampa, 1970); Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion (D: E. Petri, 1970); Slap the Monster on Page One (D: M. Bellocchio, 1972); Chronicle of a Homicide (D: M. Bolognini, 1970); We Want the Colonels (D: M. Monicelli, 1973); Dirty Weekend (D: D. Risi, 1973); Illustrious Corpses (D: F. Rosi, 1976); “Todo Modo” (D: E. Petri, 1976); Tragedy of a Ridiculous Man (D: B. Bertolucci, 1981); Blow to the Heart (D: G. Amelio, 1982); The Moro Affair (D: G. Ferrara, 1986); Year of the Gun (D: J. Frankenheimer, US, 1991); Five Moons Square (D: R. Martinelli, Italy/UK/Germany, 2003); Good Morning Night (D: M. Bellocchio, 2003); If It Is Right and It Will Be Beautiful (D: A. Grimaldi, 2004). 

TELEVISION: Il sorteggio/The draw (D: G. Campiotti, 2010); Aldo Moro-il presidente (D: G.M. Tavarelli, 2008); Il nostro generale/The General’s Men (D: A. Jublin & L. Pellegrini, 2023 and will stream on MHz Choice later in 2025).