Roberto Faenza

Who is Roberto Faenza?

Roberto Faenza is an Italian film director. Born in Turin in 1943, Faenza received a degree in Political Science and a diploma at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia.

He made his directing debut in 1968 with the international success, Escalation, a film that describes the different sides of power through the relationship between a middle-class father and his hippie son. Immediately after that he directed H2S, an angry apology of the 1968 movement, seized two days after its release and not distributed since. Upon this sequestration he travelled to the United States to teach at the Federal City College of Washington DC.

In 1978 he directed Forza Italia!, a ferocious satire on the power of the Italian Christian Democrat party covering thirty years of Italian political history. The film was withdrawn from the theatres on the day Aldo Moro, President of the Christian Democrats, was kidnapped, and remains banned for over 15 years. Aldo Moro being the one who will end his life recommending to see the film “if one wants to realize the recklessness of his fellow party members”.