on the film's plot.
Ostia is a fictionalized account of the last hours of Italian filmmaker and writer Pier Paolo Pasolini, who was brutally murdered in Ostia, a suburb of Rome, in 1975. The film shifts the setting to London and imagines a series of encounters between Pasolini and a young male actor named Eddie (played by Nigel Terry). As the night progresses, Pasolini becomes increasingly intoxicated and confrontational, delivering a scathing critique of contemporary society and his own position as an intellectual and artist. The dream sequence, which is intercut with scenes from the rest of the film, finds Pasolini wandering through a desolate landscape and encountering various archetypal figures, including a boxer and a hanged man. Throughout the film, Pasolini's own poetry and writings are integrated into the dialogue, lending a poetic and philosophical dimension to the narrative. Ostia is a haunting and visually striking film that offers a provocative meditation on art, politics, and the limits of creative expression.