Oedipus Rex

Pasolini’s Terrifying… Compassionate… Magnificent…

Pasolini's austere, mythologically grounded adaptation of Sophocles that treats the Oedipal tragedy as an inescapable existential doom, blending ancient ritual with modern psychological horror.

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…