13/12/2024 - Exploring the desire to have a child and to assert one’s gender identity, the Italian director’s new movie will screen in Sundance’s World Cinema Documentary competition

It’s been just over a year since we last saw Gianluca Matarrese in Venice, shuttling his characters between the theatre stage and real life in The Zola Experience [+see also:
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film profile] (which was treated to a special screening in the 2023 Giornate degli Autori line-up), and now the director is flying to America -more specifically to the Sundance Film Festival (running 23 January – 2 February) - with his latest movie, GEN_, which sees him documenting the ethical dilemmas of a doctor wrestling with his patients’ desires to become parents and to assert their gender identity. GEN_ is set to be presented in a world premiere within the festival’s World Cinema Documentary competition.

This new feature film by the prolific director originally from Moncalieri (Turin) and now living in Paris –  over the past five years, he’s directed nine films presented in international festivals, including in the IDFA, CPH:DOX, the Torino Film Festival, Visions du Réel and Biografilm – is co-produced by Italy, France and Switzerland, courtesy of Bellota Films, Stemal Entertainment and Elefant Films, and at the hands of Donatella Palermo, Dominique Barneaud and Alexandre Iordachescu.

Every single day, in Milan’s Niguarda Hospital, Dr Maurizio Bini helps infertile couples fulfil their desire to become parents and supports those embarking upon gender-assertion therapy. In a context of ethical dilemmas, Dr Bini operates between the limits of what’s possible and the pressure exerted by a market increasingly geared towards the commodification of bodies, with one courageous mission: to help people’s greatest dreams come true.

“The film tackles ethical, social and legal dilemmas found in Europe and in eastern democracies, but also worldwide”, explains Matarrese, whose titles include Everything Must Go (named Best Italian Documentary in Turin), The Last Chapter [+see also:
film review
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interview: Gianluca Matarrese
film profile] (awarded the Queer Lion in Venice following the film’s premiere in International Critics’ Week) and Fashion Babylon [+see also:
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film profile]. “Human desires, such as wanting to have a child or to assert one’s own gender identity, changing the way we look and our legal name, are universal. The film drills down into these desires and the difficulties people face in making their dreams come true”.

GEN_ is written by the director together with Donatella Della Ratta, with editing entrusted to Giorgia Villa. Gianluca Matarrese is also heading up photography, while music comes courtesy of Cantautoma. The film is likewise backed by France Télévisions and RTS Radio Télévision Suisse, with support from the CNC and Cinéforom.

(Translated from Italian)