ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the ways in which the public image of Aldo Moro came to be transformed in the immediate aftermath of his abduction, an event that was to profoundly alter public perceptions of the statesman. In actual fact, by kidnapping Moro and in becoming his physical custodians and attendants, the Brigate rosse (BR) had penetrated the back-stage world of Italian politics but in a very different way than they had imagined. The documentary's treatment of the events of spring 1978 may be taken as representative of the parabolic curve drawn by the figure of Moro in the public's media-inspired imaginary. The documentary anticipated and assisted historiographical work on the period, ultimately becoming a documentary and interpretative source for further historical analysis. Within the context of an extremely ambitious historical discourse, programme gave credence to importance of individual recollection, oral testimony, and figurative inscription of events on the body, which television occasionally manages to convey to the viewing public.
