I never heard of this short film until recently. But when I did, the idea alone was so strong and compelling of seeing the late director Derek Jarman playing filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini on his last day of life, that I was dizzy and couldn't think properly. Seeing it was an experience that surpassed all my expectations. It's a superb, creative and imaginative recreation of Pasolini's murder after picking up a teenage hustler, a real crime story surrounded with controversies and this very short tells it all of what some of us imagined of that might have happened on that November 2nd, 1975.

But Julian Cole's "Ostia" is a lot more than that. It's also about lust, desire, passion, perils and excitment, and how one unique man (Pasolini) dealt with all of those issues. Cole doesn't go to Italy and the surroundings of Ostia to recreate the real crime scenario; instead he makes the 1980's England and the gay scene of the period become the background of the meeting between Pasolini and the young Pino Pelosi (David Dipnall).

And even with that gimmick, we believe that we're seeing the outskirts of Ostia, as we're also more invested in the thoughts of the creator of "Salò" and "Teorema", his observation of the lustful and dangerous men provoking him to pick them up or to make him get out of his car; the date with Pelosi, just trying to have a casual conversation before a potential sexual encounter, and then the director's ultimate fate.

An everlasting sense of mystery in the air with beauty, tragedy and some poetic interludes as Jarman/Pasolini makes his artful reflections; and also some excitment and danger of men succumbing to their passions. Even though I knew Derek Jarman was an accomplished stage actor before becoming a film director, I was deeply impressed with his acting as he doesn't need to transform himself to become Pasolini yet he channels some characteristics and you easily forget about Jarman. It's full of daring scenes for its time which made it all more surprising and appealing.

"Ostia" doesn't answer the big question about who killed Pasolini and why, it only adds more controversy and mystery to everything (robbery gone wrong, homophobia, political rivalry as he was a staunch supporter of Communism). What captivates audiences into seeing it, it's all about Cole's ideas, his unique artistic view of that particular scenario and what he brings to the screen, very in tune to what the cinema of Jarman did back then. For all that, "Ostia" is a rare experience to be seen and analyzed over and over again. 10/10.