Luca Guadagnino Produces 'Ketticè,' a Sicilian Coming-of-Age Tale Starring Monica Bellucci, at Locarno
At the 79th Locarno Film Festival, Luca Guadagnino stepped before reporters to talk up Ketticè, the second feature from writer-director Giovanni Tortorici — a film-maker who began his career as Guadagnino's own assistant. The film screens in Locarno's Concorso Internazionale, the festival's main international competition section, and runs 107 minutes (Locarno Film Festival).
Guadagnino is among the producers, alongside Marco Morabito and Agustina Costa Varsi, through the Frenesy Film Company banner (Variety). PiperPlay is handling international sales — the side of the business where distributors in different territories bid for the right to release a film in their markets.
Ketticè is set in Palermo, Sicily, in 2012, during the era of Silvio Berlusconi's political dominance. The story follows Giulio, a listless and dissatisfied 16-year-old who drifts through his days with no enthusiasm for school and no clear prospects. His life shifts when he forms a close friendship with a more self-assured peer named Ketty — the title itself is Ketty's nickname in Sicilian dialect (The Hollywood Reporter).
Monica Bellucci plays Giulio's mother, the matriarch of an aristocratic Sicilian family. Variety described the character as an "eccentric" aristocratic matron (Variety). Bellucci, speaking at Locarno, called her a mother who yells and is "the victim of a social role" (The Hollywood Reporter). The cast also includes two younger performers: Salvatore Gallina and Rachele Testagrossa, both of whom Guadagnino praised alongside Tortorici at the festival.
Behind the camera, Camilla Cattabriga handles cinematography and Marco Costa edits. Tortorici's first feature, Diciannove, preceded this film.
Guadagnino framed his decision to produce Ketticè in cultural terms. He told reporters that Italian cinema became "sterile" after the advent of private television and what he called the "Berlusconi empire," and that backing Tortorici's work was a way to keep Italy's rich cinematic tradition alive (The Hollywood Reporter).
For Guadagnino, the producing credit sits alongside a directorial career that has made him one of the most visible Italian film-makers working today. For Tortorici, Locarno's competition slot puts his second feature in front of the festival circuit's buyers, critics and programmers — the people who decide which films reach audiences beyond Italy.
Variety's review, published on 8 August, carried the headline "An Amusing, Original Portrait of Adolescent Ennui" (Variety). Whether that reception translates into distribution deals will play out in the weeks after the festival closes.
