12/07/2023 - Giuseppe Fiorello’s directorial debut tells the sobering story of a forbidden love between two teenage boys in homophobic, 1980s Sicily

The very recent recipient of a Nastro d’Argento trophy for Best Newcomer (see our news) and of an Italian Golden Globe for Best First Work (see our news), thanks to a movie which was recently screened in the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival and which has been chosen as the opening title for the imminent Ortigia Film Festival - unspooling in Sicily between 15 and 22 July - Fireworks [+see also:
trailer
film profile] is racking up prize after prize. Popular actor and star of RAI fiction (who’s worked with Ozpetek, Crialese and Tornatore, among others, in film) Giuseppe Fiorello uses this film to remind us of a tragic event: the murder of two boys in love in 1980s Sicily; the so-called Giarre affair which went unpunished. And the result of this first adventure behind the cameras embarked upon by Fiorello Jr (his older brother being the well-known showman Rosario Fiorello) is a sobering film of indisputable social value. Spread across more than two hours (perhaps too long a time), however, the movie doesn’t always hold the viewer’s attention.

It takes a little while for Fireworks to get going, whose Italian title [“Stranizza d’amuri”] pays tribute to the much-missed Catania-born singer-songwriter Franco Battiato and his song of the same name, whose enchanting notes reach out to us like a gentle caress throughout the film. It’s 1982 and we’re in Sicily at the time of the football Word Cup which Italy wins. On the one hand, we have Gianni (Samuele Segreto), who’s mocked by small-town bullies for his homosexual tendencies and who returns home to an even worse situation, finding his mother (Simona Malato) under the thumb of her new boyfriend (Enrico Roccaforte), who, in exchange for a job for Gianni in his workshop and a roof over both of their heads, exerts every ounce of his unpleasant power over the mother and her son. On the other hand, there’s Nino (Gabriele Pizzurro), who looks like an angel with his beautiful, curly hair and loving, welcoming family: his father (Antonio De Matteo) supplies fireworks to all the local festivals and festivities, and his mother (Fabrizia Sacchi) is always happy to set an extra place at their joyful table.

The film take all the time it needs to paint a picture of the deep Italian South in the 1980s: men who spends their days in games rooms in bars, songs from the era playing on crackling radios, Piaggio’s iconic Sì and Ciao mopeds, and, most significant of all, archaic mentalities and prejudices. One day, Gianni and Nino meet, or rather they collide, on their respective mopeds; Nino feels responsible for having cut in front of Gianni, so he tracks him down, invites him to his house and offers him a job. A wonderful friendship unfurls between the two boys; Gianni gets his smile back and starts to envisage a new different life, for himself and for his mother. Even the latter starts smiling again and we see her in an intense scene at home, dancing with her son, her happiness contagious. The two boys’ friendship has already turned into something else and they don’t feel the need to hide it. They’re unafraid, in love and they’re happy to be seen together. People start to whisper, with the worst reactions coming from the unlikeliest of places.

As one wily character insists in the film, “If you do something in secret, you can carry on doing it for a hundred years”. But Gianni and Nino (whose real names were Giorgio and Toni) decided to live out their “strangeness” outside of the shadows. The rest is history. In the aftermath of the Giarre Affair, which unfolded in 1980, the first Arcigay circle was born in Italy, specifically in Palermo.

Fireworks is an IblaFilm, Fenix Entertainment and RAI Cinema production sold by Pulsar Content.

(Translated from Italian)