The writer Michela Murgia passed away at the age of 51 after a long illness, discovered by the world of cinema thanks to “The world must know”, which inspired Paolo Virzì’s whole life ahead
The writer Michela Murgia died in Rome a 51 years old: she had been ill for some time and had revealed in recent months that she was suffering from a stage four renal cell carcinoma. She had chosen to live the period of her illness publicly, continuing to talk about him through social channels. The funeral will take place on Saturday 12 August at 3.30 pm in the Basilica of Santa Maria in Montesanto, the Church of the Artists in Piazza del Popolo in Rome.
Born in Cabras, Sardinia, she experimented with a variety of other professions before becoming a writer. In her career she also had the opportunity to leave a trace in the world of cinema, inspiring the director Paolo Virzì. During one of these work experiences, she kept a blog in which she recounted the daily reality experienced by call center operators where she was employed. The collection of posts written by her became her first book, “The world must know. Tragi-comic novel of a precarious telephonist“, published in 2006, which inspired the screenplay of the film A Whole Life Ahead.
Michela Murgia: the writer’s forays into cinema
The bittersweet comedy of Virzì, winner of the Silver Ribbon and the Golden Globe for Best Film, as well as being nominated for five David di Donatello awards, has done nothing but confirm the lucid talent of the writer. Behind her novels there is in fact a vision of the world and of reality which, starting from a personal experience, manages to account for the many contradictions that overlap in our time. The experience of a call center operator in an extremely toxic work environment is thus transformed into something stimulating, pungent, which it makes us laugh and angry at the same time. A process of re-elaboration of reality, even in its most tragic aspects, which the author has carried out even in her last months, choosing to treat her illness without pity, but trying to exploit it to tell something about herself and improve, in some way the world around us.
The lucid and biting irony that brought the Sardinian writer to the big screen in 2008 was then confirmed ten years later in the grotesque documentary Dicktatorship – Just do it! by Gustav Hofer and Luca Ragazzi. And so, even if the world of literature remembers her for books like Accabadorawhich won her the Campiello prize in 2010, the world of cinema also mourns her passing.
Are you looking for new movies and new TV series to watch? Discover the new Disney+ subscription, the streaming home of Disney, Marvel, Pixar, Star Wars, National Geographic and now Star too. Subscribe now to only 8.99 euros per month on this page.