'If their fathers have sinned the sons must be punished' - Pier Paolo Pasolini
The Ragazzi comes from the same vivid and violent world as Pasolini's great films. In the poverty and chaos of postwar Rome, Ricetto and his gang survive by their wits, their cruelty and their instincts for survival. Their lives are shaped by hunger, theft, betrayal and prostitution; they celebrate their triumphs with brutal abandon and die bleak deaths. Pasolini writes of this harsh world with an understanding that there is humanity and even humour here.
