Sergio Basso, in conversation with journalist Iacopo Gori, presents at GO Mao Zedong. L'uomo che ha inventato la Cina di oggi (Rizzoli), a book that offers a faithful reconstruction of Mao’s rise and fall: from the Chinese Civil War and the Long March to the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution. It is also a compass — more necessary today than ever — to help us navigate the recent history of the Asian giant.

The book:

The China we so deeply fear did not come out of nowhere: it is the legitimate, rebellious and extraordinarily powerful daughter of Mao Zedong. And yet the famous icon of the Great Helmsman is made up of a contradictory mosaic that historians have often struggled to piece together. Who was Mao, really?

In this biography, filmmaker and sinologist Sergio Basso offers Italian readers — perhaps for the first time in its full complexity — the portrait of a man who was, at different moments, an awkward student, a tireless leader, a voracious lover, an ambitious poet, a demanding revolutionary, a brilliant orator and a ruthless strategist.

Without ever falling into idolatry or empty criticism, and with both the precision of a scholar and the flair of a filmmaker, Basso gives voice to those who knew Mao and his China up close. He takes us through the places, everyday details and epic conflicts that marked his journey.

The result is a gripping chronicle, one that reads like watching a film: full of twists, vivid close-ups and breathtaking panoramas.

The author:

Sergio Basso is a film and theatre director, as well as a screenwriter for video games. Alongside his career in cinema, he has also pursued an academic path: he holds a postdoc in Classics, with a focus on ancient history and Greek-Byzantine philology.

He has lived in China several times since 1996. It was in China that he worked as assistant director and dialogue writer for Gianni Amelio on the set of La stella che non c’è.

He graduated in Directing from the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome, and completed a three-year diploma in directing and acting with Jurij Alschitz, under the aegis of GITIS, the Russian Institute of Theatre Arts in Moscow.

He made his debut with Amori elementari, an Italian-Russian co-production about the emotional world of children. He writes regularly for La lettura de Il Corriere della Sera. Since 2005, he has also written screenplays for series and films directed by others.