Italian auteur Gianni Amelio (“Open Doors”) will shoot a biopic of Italian poet, playwright and director Aldo Braibanti, who was jailed in 1968 due to a Fascist-era anti-gay law. The Match Factory has boarded the pic and is launching international sales in Cannes.
Amelio is best-known for the Oscar-nominated “Open Doors” (1990) and also “Stolen Children,” which won the 1992 Cannes Grand Prix, as well as “Hammamet,” a portrait of disgraced late Italian Prime Minister Bettino Craxi’s final years in Tunisia.
Braibanti was convicted after a complaint from his partner’s father, who later forced his son to be treated with electroconvulsive therapy in an ill-conceived attempt to rid him of his homosexuality. The Fascist-era law that punished Braibanti, which made it a crime to lead innocent or unwary people “morally” astray, was repealed in 1981.
Amelio’s new film, titled “Il signore delle formiche,” which translates as “The Ants Man,” features an A-list Italian cast comprising Luigi Lo Cascio (“The Ties”), Sara Serraiocco (“Counterpart”) and Elio Germano, winner of a Cannes best actor prize for Daniele Luchetti’s “Our Life” in 2010 and more recently of Italy’s 2021 David di Donatello Award for Giorgio Diritti’s “Hidden Away.” Shooting will wrap in Rome on July 12.
Popular on Variety
Above is an exclusive first look image of Germano (left) and Lo Cascio (right) in the film.
The film is produced by Simone Gattoni for Kavac Film — the shingle he co-founded with veteran auteur Marco Bellocchio, who is being honored in Cannes with a Lifetime Achievement Palme d’Or — and Beppe Caschetto’s IBC Movie, Tenderstories and RAI Cinema.
“We are very proud to be supporting the vision of a maestro such as Gianni Amelio in shedding light on a dark occurrence that is so significant for Italian history and society and also very timely given the country’s current situation,” Gattoni said.