06/11/2023 - LEONE’s debut feature film transports us inside the private world of a group of adolescents who are huge fans of the three-wheeler Ape van and are looking for their place in the world

An award-winning director and photographer who also happens to be the creative director and CEO of the production company and magazine C41, LEONE previously made his name with a variety of short films and publicity campaigns for well-known brands, before signing his name to this first feature-length documentary, Sting Like a Bee, which was presented in the Festival dei Popoli’s Italian Competition. Brave, seductive and aesthetically enthralling, the documentary follows a group of youngsters from the suburbs of central and Southern Italy as they speak with total sincerity about their everyday lives and what it’s like to grow up trapped in a comforting but ultimately limiting reality.

Having started out as a visual research project, Sting Like a Bee is a journey to the heart of an Italy hitherto unknown to many, namely the peripheral zones and villages where time seems to stand still. In his first feature film, LEONE lends a voice to a community of adolescents hailing from these towns, a seemingly heterogeneous community who are, however, united by their overwhelming passions verging on obsessions. The most all-encompassing of these revolves around the Piaggio Ape, an icon of Italian design the world over, which these youngsters transform into a deafeningly loud race car. For them, the Ape offers an imaginary escape from an everyday life which provides very few opportunities for release, apart from outings to funfairs and afternoons at the beach, full of summer flirtations and daydreams.

In Sting Like a Bee, LEONE takes a skilful approach to blend reality and fiction in a poetic delirium reminiscent of the very best mumblecore productions or the wanton rebellion of adolescence which is typical of Larry Clark’s movies. With a hyper-realist yet affection-filled eye, the Italian director follows his protagonists as they discover the world around them, a world which they thought they knew but which actually turns adolescence into a hunting ground, a welcoming yet frightening place where they must fight to find (or rediscover) themselves. Treading the streets of an Italy not often seen in cinema, namely the peripheral areas, these youngsters come together in packs, hungry for imaginary adventures. Structured around its cast, Sting Like a Bee’s protagonists lay themselves bare in front of the cameras, treating us to some deeply moving, stolen moments of intimacy. Whether focusing on decidedly awkward romantic relationships or three-wheelers seemingly capable of competing against Formula 1 race cars, anything goes in this film, anything is cool, as if by magic, reminding us how important it is to dream and to become the heroes and heroines of our own everyday lives.

Thanks to a perfect balance between tragedy and comedy, harsh reality and surreal-esque moments of humour (“what is AIDS?”, the director asks one of his protagonists, who replies: “an electronic cigarette”), LEONE invites us to observe but not judge moments of teenage “pollination”, with its boys who are crazy about car tuning and flashy Api girls who try to seduce with their three-wheeled race cars. Sting Like a Bee sees LEONE offering these heroes from the peripheries an opportunity to shine, to finally show the world that they exist and that they can become the protagonists of their own lives.

Sting Like a Bee is produced by C41.

(Translated from Italian)