Marco Bellocchio's six-episode TV series is a majestic cinematic work investigating the fall from grace of Italy’s most beloved TV host.
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Marco Bellocchio’s terrific true crime saga is a timely study of a notorious Italian miscarriage of justice.
Portobello (Eps 1 - 3) 2025
| Aug 15 |
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Internationally acclaimed in recent years for Kidnapped (NZIFF 2023) and The Traitor (2019), veteran Italian auteur Marco Bellocchio confirms his vigour and political commitment with Portobello, a TV series of striking cinematic tension.
Bellocchio traces back the incidents surrounding the conviction of leading TV host Enzo Tortora, to depict a sombre portrayal of corruption and injustice. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Tortora (played in a virtuoso turn of subtle aloofness and growing compassion by Fabrizio Gifuni) was a superstar of popular television, hosting a show called Portobello, whose main staple was a competition where ordinary people and celebrities tried to make the eponymous parrot pronounce its name.
Tortora was much beloved by the public as a simple, straightforward man, mirroring the soul of the “average Italian”. Yet, when in a heavily media-covered case he was arrested under the accusation of drug dealing and connections with camorra, the Neapolitan brand of mafia, his downfall was merciless. With Bellocchio's gusto for melodrama and dynamic, suspenseful storytelling, Portobello is television at the service of great cinema.
– Paolo Bertolin