Calabria-born Amelio, 77, won the Golden Lion with The Way We Laughed in 1998 and only came out as gay himself when presenting his 2014 documentary Happy to be Different.
The director said that the film recounts the case of Aldo Braibanti, a gay Emilian poet, writer and playwright who was accused of having taken psychological advantage of a young student who underwent electric-shock therapy and a stay in a psychiatric hospital at his family’s request.
Braibanti ended up on trial and was sentenced to nine years in prison in 1968.
The affair, and the vibrant protests it provoked, became a major cause celebre at the time.
“I love this film,” said Amelio, whose other acclaimed films include Blow to the Heart (1982), I ragazzi di via Panisperna (1987), Open Doors (1989), The Stolen Children (1992), Lamerica (1994), The Keys to the House (2004), The Missing Star (2006), The First Man (2011), L’intrepido (2013), Tenderness (2017), and Hammamet (2020).
“I’m unhappy, though,” he went on, “not with this work, which I think is one of my best, but for private reasons, because of a love affair I was engaged in while filming, very tormented.
“Perhaps the film benefited from this, I experienced the same fragilities of the protagonist.
“In short, it’s about the Braibanti Case, but above all the love between a man and a boy, and it became very autobiographical”.
The film stars Luigi Lo Cascio in the role of the intellectual of Fiorenzuola d’Arda (Piacenza), Leonardo Maltese in his debut performance as young Ettore (a made-up name because his family did not give permission for his real name to be used), and Elio Germano as Ennio, a journalist from the Communist daily l’Unità, who becomes gripped by the trial and wants to report on it without censorship.
The cast and crew on the red carpet at the premiere of the film at the Venice Film Festival. (Photo: AAP)
The honorary president of Arcigay, Franco Grillini, was also present at the screening at the Lido.
“The gay question has not been resolved,” he said to applause from Amelio.
“All you have to think about is the disgraceful applause in the Senate when they stopped the Zan bill (which would have made anti-gay sentiments an aggravating factor in gay hate crimes)”.
