THE YEAR OF THE CANNIBALS

The streets of the city are littered with corpses. It is the result of the repression of a protest by the police. A decree of law prohibits the removal of the bodies, under penalty of death, by supreme order of the totalitarian regime. People pass the macabre scene with indifference. Only Antigone wants to bury her brother, but neither her family, nor her fiancé - who is the son of the prime minister - will help her. She finds help from Tiresias, a mysterious stranger who speaks an unknown language. The two dedicate themselves to burying the dead and for this they are arrested and tortured; at first they manage to escape but then they are killed by the police. However, they become a symbol for many young people who, from that moment, begin to collect the corpses of the rebels to bury them.

I Cannibali, third feature film by Liliana Cavani, starring a trio of excellent actors (Pierre Clementi, Britt Ekland and Tomas Milian), is a modern reinterpretation of Sophocles' tragedy, made during the protest years of 1967-69. A film that stands out for its visionary intelligence, in the context of Italian political cinema.