Pier Paolo Pasolini considered himself first and foremost a poet. But his poetic vision was of people who lived on the edge of society or outside the law, a vision that carried over into his filmmaking.The son of a committed Fascist officer, he graduated from the university in his hometown of Bologna and in rebellion against his father's political beliefs turned to communism. Conscripted for the army, he was taken prisoner by German forces following the Italian surrender to the Allies. He escaped and hid out with his family; being on the run and hiding out would become recurrent themes in his
