he worked as co-scriptwriter on many of francesco rosi's movies, including "le mani sulla città" (1963), "uomini contro" (1970) and "cristo si è fermato a eboli" (1979). in september 2001 he won a premio campiello lifetime achievement award and in 2005 "l'estro quotidiano" was selected as the winner of the viareggio prize for fiction.