Stranizza d’amuri [Fireworks] **** (2023, Samuele Segreto, Gabriele Pizzurro, Simone Raffaele Cordiano, Antonio De Matteo, Simona Malato, Fabrizia Sacchi) – Classic Movie Review 12,607

The searing 2023 Italian film Stranizza d’amuri [Fireworks] is inspired by an appalling 1980s news story, the double murder of Giarre, and dedicated to its two gay victims. The crime shocked Italy and prompted the Italian gay movement.

[Spoiler alert] Director Giuseppe Fiorello’s 2023 Italian film Stranizza d’amuri [Fireworks] is a quite exquisite, beautifully made, searing film with a ghastly air of menace throughout and a devastating conclusion. It is inspired by an appalling news story of the 1980s, the double murder crime of Giarre, and dedicated to its two gay victims, Giorgio Giammona and Antonio Galatola.

Stranizza d’amuri [Fireworks] is a work of glorious film-making, with brilliant attention to mood, atmosphere, characters, and its subject of supreme prejudice. It is subtle and strongly hard hitting at the same time, and despite its historical setting, totally relevant with its implied attack on the Italian people, way of life and government.

Samuele Segreto stars as the 17-year-old gay teen Gianni.

Not really a crowd-pleaser, it goes for the rotten core of Bella Italia, and bites hard. It is more of a rallying cry. With its depiction of the idyllic love story of the two youths, it proposes a different way, a better life for everybody. ah, yes, inclusion. The purity and beauty of the boys’ love is sharply contrasted with the rabid prejudice, ignorance and hate of the locals.

Samuele Segreto stars as the 17-year-old gay teen Gianni, who is being bullied by the locals because of his homosexuality and (apparently) supported only by his mother Lina (Simona Malato) and one kind local girl. Suddenly he sees his life change when, after a scooter accident, he meets the captivating and innocent 16-year-old Nino (Gabriele Pizzurro), who gives him the kiss of life, literally and figuratively. A great friendship is born between them.

It is June 1982, in what should be a joyous summer in Sicily. But the glorious summer turns sour. While the other Italians dream of winning the World Cup, and follow their disgusting prejudices, the two teenagers try to follow their hearts and live their love story openly and without fear. They boys start working together for Nino’s father, shooting fireworks.

Their bond is discovered by their families (shockingly it starts first as betrayal by the mothers), and the boys are separated by force, but then decide to take on everyone. Tragically, this proves more than dangerous. It proves fatal.

The acting is strong and subtle. Samuele Segreto and Gabriele Pizzurro are perfect as the two boys, and Simona Malato and Fabrizia Sacchi (as Nino’s mother Carmela) are ideal as the troubled and troubling mothers.

It is convincingly and persuasively written by Giuseppe Fiorello (story and screenplay) and Andrea Cedrola (screenplay), tie-toeing delicately through what could be a minefield. Ramiro Civita’s cinematography is a treat, capturing the time and place.

The crime of Giarre is a double murder committed on 31 October 1980 in Giarre in the province of Catania, It became fundamental in the history of the Italian homosexual liberation movement as it led to the foundation of the first Arcigay circle.

Arcigay is Italy’s first and largest worldwide gay organisation, first founded as a local association in Palermo on 9 December 1980, on the wave of a demonstration organised in Giarre for the murders two months earlier. Giorgio Giammona and Antonio Galatola, were killed on October 17 with a bullet each in the head for being gay, possibly shot by Antonio’s 13-year-old nephew, though no culprit was ever identified. But the point is, it is not who pulled the trigger, but how it came about that anyone did.

It proved a turning point. It shocked Italy. On the one hand Italian public opinion had to acknowledge the existence of homophobia. And on the other hand it and prompted the Italian gay movement. But, 40 years or so on, much has changed but a lot is still the same.

It is Giuseppe Fiorello’s directorial debut. Filming took place in Marzamemi, Ferla, Buscemi, Priolo Gargallo, Pachino. The title Stranizza d’amuri (‘strangeness of love’) was always wanted by the director as a tribute to Franco Battiato, whose music has always been the soundtrack of the director. The film was produced by Eleonora Pratelli for Iblafilm, Fenix Entertainment with Rai Cinema, Silvio Campara, Golden Goose and GeneraLife.

The film was released in Italian cinemas on 23 March 2023 and distributed by BIM distribution. A month after its release, it reached 1,000,000 euros in receipts and transmission on the Rai networks was announced.

© Derek Winnert 2023 – Classic Movie Review 12,607

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