Encolpius and Ascyltus—childhood, beloved friends but deadly rivals concerning the affections of the teenager Gitón—traverse a continent of sexual perversion and violence. A free—and licentious—adaption of Petronius’ work of the same name, Satyricon is Fellini’s most daring, cinematic wandering in a wild and fragile planet: The Pre-Christian Roman empire of Nero. In an attempt to recreate it from scratch, Fellini the creator, directs a bizarre and barbaric chronicle; that challenges the audiences’ instincts of comfort—alienating them from the headspace and psyche of his characters—and from any inkling of narrative normalcy. It is a film of relentless iconographic beauty, that has been characterised as “science fiction of the past” and continues to be the cause of bewilderment and dispute; as to whether—and in what way—it is a satirical reflection of antiquity’s barbarianism, on the modern amoralism—permeating and defining our culture.