In pre-war Italy, a young couple have a baby boy. The father, however, is jealous of his son - and the scene moves to antiquity, where the baby is taken into the desert to be killed. He is rescued, given the name Oedipus, and brought up by the King and Queen of Corinth as their son. One day an oracle informs Oedipus that he is destined to kill his father and marry his mother. Horrified, he flees Corinth and his supposed parents - only to get into a fight and kill an older man on the road…
Direction
Pasolini's opening and closing frames bookend 2,500 years of neurosis.
Acting
Franco Citti's Oedipus: all sinew, sweat, and animal panic.
Cinematography
Moroccan desert as psychological landscape—harsh, indifferent, beautiful.
Director
Pier Paolo Pasolini
Franco Citti
Oedipus
Silvana Mangano
Jocasta, Queen of Thebes (and unnamed Italian young mother)
Alida Valli
Merope, Queen of Corinth
Carmelo Bene
Creon
Julian Beck
Tiresias
Luciano Bartoli
Laius, King of Thebes (and unnamed Italian young father)
Francesco Leonetti
Servo di Laio
Giovanni Ivan Scratuglia
Sacerdote
Ninetto Davoli
Angelo
Laura Betti
Jocasta's Maid (uncredited)
Pier Paolo Pasolini
High Priest (uncredited)
Isabel Ruth
Jocasta's Maid with a Lamb (uncredited)
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Pasolini insisted on filming in Morocco with non-professional locals, creating a 'timeless' Mediterranean poverty that collapses ancient and modern class struggle. The desert isn't backdrop—it's thesis.
IT
