Location Hunting in Palestine

While scouting locations for his classic "The Gospel According to St. Matthew", director Pier Paolo Pasolini noticed that filming in the actual site of the story, in Palestine, wouldn't be much of a great choice due to the modern invasion which completely altered the biblical settings. Here, the director explained his reasons of why his search in the Middle East end up being wrong - though somewhat fruitful and rewarding in other ways - and why his native Italy surprised him and became the scenario for his religious epic.